The End (Rough Draft)
by IvoryMedal
Summary: As the prophecy foretold, two angels, one sent by god, the other sent by the devil, will decide the future of this world. With each passing day, their power grows to new heights, leaving nothing but desolation in their wake. When the two do battle, one will perish along with the world they chose to protect.
1. Chapter 1

The End Chapter 1 3rd Draft

Days Remaining Until the Apocalypse: 354

There was one thing that Finn missed: adventuring. Memories of it were fresh in his mind. He sat on his couch, and payed close attention to the material he was sitting on. It had the same cloth and cushions as yesterday, the day before that, and the exact day seven years prior to that. It was a weird couch. Surely, it should've shown signs of aging, but it remained smooth, moderately soft, and unwounded. The seventeen-year-old's face brightened when he saw a penny under the cushion, but the light quickly faded when he recognized its origin. He remembered it from a past adventure with his brother, Jake. Hours after they dealt with the monsters, Finn found the penny Jake tossed aside and left it under the cushion for safe keeping. As Finn continued to think about that day, he realized that, in hindsight, the penny was the only worthwhile thing that came out of that little adventure. No worthwhile change took place. Finn and Jake were still physically capable of doing a similar adventure, but there was one thing that was missing: a sense of purpose. The older Finn knew that the little penny, despite serving as a reminder of a more childlike time, was nothing more than a token of a mistake that almost got them killed. Nothing is what most of his past adventures amounted too, but at least as a kid, he had the illusion of purpose. But as Finn got older, he began to see that nearly every major thing that happened in his life appeared to loop back to where he started. As he further delved into his memories, a cycle of stagnation seemed to haunt Ooo, and Finn grew miserable.

The young man himself became stagnant; he didn't move from his home for several days and actively avoided talking to others. Much to Jake's annoyance, Finn decided to stay home while he went out. Finn didn't care to remember how he convinced Jake to go on his own. When he left, Finn shut off all means of external communication. He locked the doors, shut all the windows, turned off the phone, and disabled the machine that gave video messages.

If ignoring others were a sport, Finn would be the champion. Somehow, he stayed on that couch for several days; he only moved to block communication or to use the bathroom. Concerned about Finn's weird stillness, BMO, one of Finn and Jake's robot companion, tried to feed the human a sandwich. The robot had to improvise using leftover meatloaf instead of normal lunch meat. The silent rejection of the meatloaf sandwich was even more puzzling to the robot, because Finn was always an avid meatloaf lover. Even though the attempts were fruitless, BMO kept trying to nudge the sandwich in the sandwich in his mouth.

Considering that Jake didn't return home until dusk in recent days, BMO was frustrated about the lack of any true alone time. To show this anger, BMO clenched its fist and tried to stomp with great force. Jake saw that it was trying to express power in this situation. However, despite knowing that BMO had a legitimate reason to be angry, Jake almost let out a chuckle due to the robots' small, plastic body. Given that BMO's creator designed it to be cute, its angry expressions would follow suit.

"Can't we just call a doctor?" said BMO.

"No," said Jake. "I know a sickness when I see one, and my bro clearly doesn't have one."

"But he hasn't been letting me feed him. I doubt that he's even had a glass of water since he went quiet." BMO hopped onto the table and grabbed the glass of water. Jake watched as the robot try to put the liquid in the human boy's mouth. Alas, Finn prohibited any entry; the water only succeeded in coating his lips.

Jake laughed. "Take it easy BMO. Let me try pry him open."

BMO didn't want to listen to Jake. It tried to summon all its strength to pry open his mouth, but since Finn's shirt wasn't the most stable ground, BMO fell to the ground emitting a faint whimper.

"You okay?" Jake said as his face shifted from joy to concern. His arm stretched out to grab BMO. Unfortunately, upon grabbing the little robot, the three could hear several bones cracking. Jake let out a yelp and let go of BMO, which caused the robot to land face first onto the wooden floor. After regaining his posture, Jake looked up at his brother. In a departure from what little he had done within recent days, Finn turned his head toward Jake and began to arch his eyebrows. His faced slowly formed to express his worry for adopted brother. In the transition from a neutral to a worried, Jake and BMO could see that there was no energy nor passion in flowing through the boy. All they were left with was a silent, still, and worried face staring right into their souls.

Jake, being rather fed up by Finn's strange behavior, tried to have a word with him. Unfortunately, since he had to rest due to injuries, Jake couldn't show that he had any influential power over Finn. Nevertheless, Jake tried to converse with his brother.

"Dude, what's been going with you?" Another audible crack came from Jake as he tried to point at his brother. Due to this, the dog groaned in pain. His attention shifted to his robot friend. "BMO, I need the first aid kit from the bathroom." By sending the robot off, Jake turned his attention back to Finn. "Please, the princess has been sending me on missions made for _two_. I can't keep doing this alone!"

Finn remained silent. The robot returned and handed the kit to Jake. Being incapacitated, Jake had to have BMO give him the needed medicine. "Which one was it again?" asked the robot. Speaking meekly, Jake replied, "That green bottle." In the bottle was a sort of lotion with a color that corresponded with its bottle. BMO rubbed the lotion on Jake and wrapped his broken limbs in bandages.

"You will still be healed by tomorrow, correct?" BMO finished taping the last bandage and went to retrieve to rib brace.

"How else would I be able handle what's going on lately?" Despite injuries, Jake was still able to produce bits of light-hearted sarcasm when spoke.

"I wonder what type of magic the princess put in this stuff." As BMO walked back with the brace, it looked at the bottle with a sort of wide-eyed fascination. "I wonder if it works on computers."

Jake lifted his head up slightly. "Princess Bubblegum doesn't believe in magic. I should know, because I remember her making an entire city of wizards mad." Jake also remembered that it almost got them killed, but he refrained from telling the innocent robot. "At least she's good at what she does." He then plopped his head back into the couch.

Jake was finally in a state of tranquility. Even though hurt to be healed, the lotion going to work was more bearable and beneficial. The only thing missing would be a warm bath, but moving at this state would damage his body mid-heal. Before he passed out on the couch, he took one last look at Finn, who went back to his initial, emotionless expression. Before drifting off into dreamland, Jake made a mental note to make sure that Finn comes with him the next day. Since Jake was out of commission until morning, BMO decided that the best way to relieve boredom would be to play with Neptr, another household robot.

Finn waited until he was certain that not a soul was watching him. By that time, it was already midnight. He stood up and walked slowly to each window. Each step was delicate to ensure that no sound would come from the old floor boards. When he made it to a window, he would just stare into the moonlit field for about five minutes. Unless he counted the insects, not a single soul could be seen. This happened with every window, and the only thing of notable throughout the process was the tall grass moving to the strong gusts of wind. The last window he went to was in the kitchen. He pulled up a chair and stared at this window much longer than the other ones. Someone else's words rung in his.

"You weren't supposed to have your wishes come true," he whispered to himself, mimicking the original speaker. "You were supposed to die." He looked toward the clouds that glided through the sky. He then, for a moment, stopped replaying his memories. He spoke as if someone was within his sight. "I know you're out there," he said. "But where are you?" Finn remained in that spot for the remainder of the night.

The next morning, it was apparent Jake had overslept. He was supposed to meet the princess at the crack of dawn, but he rose from slumber at about noon. In his rush to get ready, he didn't notice that Finn had moved from the couch. It was only when he reached his phone he realized why he over slept so late: his alarm clock was shut off. Through this past week, Jake hid the one electronic he needed to keep up with the missions. Finn treated the new alarm clock in a similar manner as the communication devices. It looks like his brother found out where he hid the it. Jake, being faced with the fact that his brother sabotaged him, felt an increase in one emotion: anger. He marched toward Finn, who was still staring out the window.

Finn heard faint babbling. The voice was faint, but angry. He didn't care though, because he could finally rest. As his brothers became louder and angrier, a tired smile formed on his face. "A sign!" He thought. "Finally, there is purpose." A distant cloud of smoke was the apple of his eye. Its' thickness was enough to make it stick out in the blue sky, and size of the orange flames resting at the bottom made it clear that it was only a few miles away. His heart was like the foreboding wildfire: his contempt, thick and toxic, knew that such a disaster gave nothing but waste, but underneath were the flickering flames, who wanted nothing more than the call of adventure. But for Finn, he saw his own smoke as being trapped, which left it to linger inside. Too much contained smoke can kill a young flame. Finn sought to burn bright. To do so, he'd have to remove waste to make room for fuel.

Finn felt his eyes get heavy and passed out after the moment of bliss. He had no dreams while he was unconscious; staying awake for at least a week probably made him too tired to do so. Between the long stretches of darkness, he could catch short glimpses of Jake doing something. Unfortunately, the only thing he could make out was the appearance of a train.

Finn was pleasantly surprised when awoke. Within his vision, he could see a seat from a familiar train. His mind raced back to his 12th birthday. The memory was slightly blurry, but he remembered that Jake had set up a murder mystery for him to solve. He hadn't seen this train since that birthday, and it was nice to see it in its normal, rather calm state. Of course, Finn believed that it could be improved with another pretend mystery. For five minutes, he lied there admiring the outdoor scenery. However, such beauty was halted by the feeling of hunger and thirst. Finn knew that the previous days were catching up with him; he couldn't ignore his needs for much longer. He rose out of his seat.

Still somewhat tired, he felt the need to rub his eyes, which gave a passenger time to approach him. Because Finn had a limited field of vision, he didn't notice that his brother was only a few inches away. This left Finn slightly startled when the first person he saw was unfamiliar. The stranger's defining feature was his skull mask, which was complete with glowing red eyes in its sockets. Finn's first instinct was to jump back away from the potential threat, but the action resulted in the boy ramming into Jake. Any fear that Finn had dissipated when he got a better look at the stranger. Anyone with cleared eyes could see that skull mask was rather simple and smooth. This, combined with the unrealistically round designed, made it look like it came from a toy shop's Halloween bargain bin. The red eyes, while they glowed like your stereotypical monster villain, only served to enforce the toy-like design of the mask. The only thing remotely unnerving about the individual was the absence of a left hand. Jake, who didn't understand why his brother jumped back from the little stranger, pushed Finn away from him.

"Did I scare you, sir?" said the stranger.

Finn mustered up the will to speak. "Yeah, but only a little."

"Well, that's a relief." The stranger then pulled a newspaper from the cart and showed it to Finn. "Would you like today's issue of Ooo Weekly? Our paper has gotten a very popular recently." He then pointed to the stacks of wrapped foods and canned drinks. "Food and drink are also available. All items are just 50 cents."

Finn looked at the items and saw that one of the drinks was iced coffee. He didn't like it as much as warm coffee, but it was better than nothing. Lucky for him, he left some gold in his pockets; he had just enough to buy the coffee and three breakfast bars. The stranger was visibly disappointed by Finn's refusal to buy a paper. As the stranger went to approach another passenger, the employee he was covering for came into the train car. He tipped the small stranger for buying him enough time to use the bathroom. The employee was a neatly dressed fellow with bags under his eyes. The stranger, relieved of this humbling duty, sat down in the closest seat. When the stranger sat, he couldn't help but pay close attention to Finn, who was too busy eating to notice him. He tried to begin a conversation with Finn.

"Hey, human," he said, "Now that I'm no longer bound by the staff rules. I can sell you a paper at a better price." He flaunted to paper in Finn's field of vision.

"Did you steal that?" Finn asked. The possibility of such an act annoyed him.

"No. You misunderstood me." He started to get a little nervous. "I work for Ooo Weekly, so I have easy access to these things. You can get a paper anywhere else for half the price they have here. It's a scam if you ask me!"

"I'm out of cash." With that, Finn returned to eating.

Just as the stranger tried to grab Finn's attention again, Jake began to seek it as well. Not knowing what Jake would say, the stranger waited for an opportunity to regain the human's attention. Jake tried to pry an answer off Finn, but every attempt was met with small shrug and smile. Naturally, this made Jake evermore confused. Just as it appeared that Jake had finished talking, a regal figure, identifiable by the copious shades of pink on her apparel and body, peeked up from her seat and attempted to fish answers out of Finn.

"Finn," she said. "I won't tolerate this behavior again. We could be in the middle of a crisis right now; we need all the man-power we can get."

"Don't worry," said Finn. "The town is only a few miles away. Jake and I dealt with stuff like this before." He put on a confident grin as he continued to chew the bar.

Finn wasn't in the mood to listen to his companions. His focus was on the potential of his future encounter. He tuned out everything else that the others were saying and focused solely on his surroundings. The cloud of smoke was the first sign his opposition's presence. Now, Finn was determined to find another. One would be all that he needed to locate the entity. Finn looked to his left, but nothing was out of the ordinary. He then looked to the right, and the cloud of smoke was in clear view. Finn had a hunch that the area the foreboding figure covered would be too obvious of a place to investigate. Much to the other's displeasure, Finn went to investigate the other train cars.

Finn knew that the staff had strict rules against its passengers jumping between cars, but the presence of a potential threat would likely be enough to excuse his behavior. In each train car, he paid close attention to everyone and everything around him. The slightest abnormality would be enough to know where the threat lied. He listened closely, but it seemed like the only thing that could be heard was the train trekking and the passengers blabbing. He considered the possibility of listen to conversations, but there were just too many to process. Initially, he had the same bad luck with his sight. The infrastructure was of high caliber, but not perfect. He wouldn't want it any other way; anything too perfect was a sure sign of danger. The passengers were no different: nobody was shady nor unrealistically innocent. Most of the people he saw were same sugar-constructed, unchanging, and non-human civilians he grown accustomed to seeing.

He knew he reached the end of the train when all that was left was the conductor's car. He figured that, by hoping around between cars, he already broken enough rules on the train. Disrupting the conductor could result in serious legal trouble. So, to fulfill both his duty and some legality, he decided to just give a little peak into the car. As he grabbed the handle, his head suddenly started pounding, and his vision started to become distorted. However, Finn was undeterred in achieving what he intended to do. Finn watched several horror movies in his lifetime, so when he saw that there was nothing out of the ordinary in the conductor's car, the sight raised a lot of red flags. He shut the door and looked back at the cart where he came. Finn didn't want himself to fall victim to standard horror flick routine, but he realized that, with all the observations that he made, the enemy had silently cornered him.

"So, this is your plan," Finn thought. He looked at the cars' rooftops and noticed that all avenues for getting up top of train had been removed. "The only way out of here is where I came. You followed me to this spot, didn't you? I bet you're behind that door, waiting for me to return so you could land an ambush."

Finn smiled and clenched his fist. Even though he didn't enjoy how he easily for the enemy's trap, Finn had satisfaction in figuring what his rival was doing. Expecting a fight, Finn charged back in the passenger car at full force. His head immediately started pounding again, and the reality he saw before him was distorted beyond recognition. Everyone and everything around him went still, except for one person. He was a creature unfamiliar to Finn; he was a humanoid skeleton at first glance. But what covered his limbs and skull were arteries, and inside the ribcage lied much of his other internal organs. He drew two swords out of the ground. Both swords had identical characteristics: shape, length, width, handle, and metal were all the same. The only difference was the jewel ingrained in the blade's handle. One had a ruby, while the other had a sapphire.

The monster threw the sapphire sword, and it landed with firmly into the ground with its handle skyward. Finn could see the anticipation in his rival's eyes; he waited for Finn to grab ahold of the weapon. He looked the steel blade as it shined in what little light there was left. Finn looked the skeleton in the eye and smiled. They looked each other in the eye, and, despite the circumstances, they knew that they were equals. Finn and his rival grabbed their blades and began to clash.


	2. Chapter 2

The End Chapter 2 2nd Rough Draft

Days Remaining Until the Apocalypse: 353

The two warriors were isolated in their world. The train had distorted into a red, canyon-sized cave with cliffs lining the walls. These cliffs were made from the seats and windows. There was very little noise in this realm; the only thing that could be heard was the sound of a weapon conflicting with its twin.

They began at a stalemate. Whenever one attempted to strike, their counterpart flawlessly blocked it. However, doing so was not an easy task, because the sheer speed at which they attacked required immense concentration. At first, Finn thought that the fighter was simply copying his every move. He doesn't remember facing too many mimic-style opponents, so Finn never formed a common strategy against them. Finn's method of breaking the pattern involved a short jump backwards, but the skeleton punished him by lunging forward and stabbing his stomach. However, while the attack did penetrate the skin, the resulting wound was only an inch deep. Finn took advantage of this by kicking the monster's leg, but the movement allowed the monster's sword to tear through more skin. Finn, succeeding in knocking the skeleton off balance, was finally able to distance himself.

"Who are you?" Finn shouted. He griped his sword in preparation against another attack.

The monster was shocked at what Finn had to say. He growled and clenched his fist. It wasn't the normal growl of a monster. It had a distinct tone that matched that of an organism that understood language. In a fit of blind rage, the skeleton threw his weapon at Finn, which the human mostly dodged. The attack left a cut on Finn's right arm; it was not as damaging as the stab wound.

Finn went to retrieve the red-jeweled sword, and the skeleton let the human do so. Within a few available seconds, he aimed at the human with his boney hand. The appendage looked like it was trying to grasp something out of the air. Upon seeing a green gas seep out his wounds, Finn's concentration was lost.

They watched as the gas started to move towards the skeleton's hand. Finn watched in horror as the gas enveloped the hand; muscle quickly started to appear on the previously skeletal arm. Getting a new feel for this attachment, the monster bended his figures in various ways and punched a Cliffside. It became clear to Finn that the muscle added to the arm made it exponentially stronger. With that one punch, he made a miniature fissure appear, making that cliff at risk of collapse. The skeleton looked back at Finn, who couldn't help but see a slight grin amid the static jaw. The skeleton then leap at Finn, unleashing a barrage of punches.

The attacks persisted, leaving the poor human with further injuries. It wasn't until a punch missed when the skeleton faced his sharp comeuppance. With two blades lodged in the flesh of the upper arm, the skeleton roared in agony. Finn sprinted toward the plateaus in the distance, taking only his sword with him. The skeleton tried to catch up with him after removing the remaining sword from his body. While running, the severity of the wound became apparent. Drops of blood started to form a trail as he progressed in his pursuit. But when the skeleton reached the groups of plateaus, Finn had gotten out of his sight.

The battlefield went quiet. Finn peaked out from where he was hiding. Sure enough, he saw the skeleton searching the area while treading in a cautious manner. Finn also made sure that he snuck around as quietly as he could, because almost any noise could be heard in that silent realm. Finn further distanced himself from his opponent. When he gained enough distance to prepare a proper sneak attack, Finn had also lost sight of who he was fighting. He climbed up the plateau and scouted the area, but the skeleton was still out of sight. Soon after, Finn's attention turned to a drop of blood he left. The human noticed that he himself also left a trail. Finn's eyes followed the drops of red liquid until he found out another trail that intersected it. He jumped from one plateau to the next when following it. If he could pull of his maneuvers correctly, Finn knew that he had a chance of landing a sneak attack on the being. Before every jump, Finn scanned the area around him to make sure that he wasn't falling into another trap. He eventually made it to the trail's end without making a sound.

The trail simply cut off without any other trace of the skeleton. Finn assumed that, obviously, the skeleton was hiding amongst the plateaus, waiting for the opportunity to strike. Both were, once again, at a stalemate. Neither one could immediately see nor hear the other. They started to grow nervous; they had a difficult time remaining still as they desperately searched for any ques that could reveal their location. They both began to shake; the risk associated with fighting a battle of attrition would be too high. Both needed to quickly tip the scales to come out in one peace.

Perhaps the skeleton suspected Finn would take the high route? He did. The skeleton believed there was no reason for not doing so. If there was anywhere Finn would strike, it would be from above. He stood firmly at his location, waiting for Finn to avoid what seems like an obvious trap and fall right into another. Finn went back to the area where the blood trails seem to wind around the plateaus. The skeleton positioned his sword to perform a powerful, skyward strike. He saw a glimmer of blue light come from Finn's blade.

It was Finn's sword, but nothing else. The skeleton saw grace within the blade. Despite the situation, it seemed achieve divine grace in the dim light of that realm. He could see every detail in that blade; everything from the near-perfect balance of the steel to tinniest crack or indent. By holding a sword with a red gem embedded in the handle, the skeleton felt as though he was facing the judgement of another world's god. However, there was one word engraved in both blades that he could never forget: "Human." The word shined on the opposing blade. The skeleton believed he truly found his equal. But alas, as grand as a divine execution is, he couldn't accept defeat. With a sword that was equal to it in power, he was rejuvenated in his duty to fight until his end.

He knocked Finn's sword skyward, but he was faced with the revelation that Finn, realizing that it was another trap, had snuck up on him from a different route. The human boy threw a punch at the skeleton. Going by his reflexes, the skeleton also tried to punch Finn. However, against all odds, their attempted punches landed directly on each other's fist. Their struggle sent shockwaves throughout the realm. They were at once again at a stalemate.

"I can't win here," said the Skeleton. Although he wanted to beat Finn, he silently accepted that his chances of doing so now would be slim.

He only had a second to do so, but the skeleton could absorb just a little bit more of the green gas. If he stayed any longer, he would've been left open. He used it to gain a little muscle in his legs and ran. Finn chased after him, but the skeleton was more agile than him. The realm started to revert to its normal state. The skeleton climbed to the top of the highest plateau he could find. Finn couldn't bare letting him get out of his sight, so he climbed one too.

The sky cracked like glass; each crack revealed parts of the normal world used to make this one. By luck, Finn found the sword he was using and took it with him. Once the skeleton reached one of the highest plateaus, he stopped moving. Finn was suspicious of this lack or movement. Therefore, he jumped to the plateau next to his opponent and waited for another attack. However, he didn't attack. The skeleton just stood there, glaring at Finn. The boy glared back his opponent. Pieces of the realm continued to break apart until the normal world covered a fourth of the realm. Soon a piece of this new world broke behind them, allowing two rays of sunlight to invade from the old one. The morning light was shining on them from behind, causing a shadow to cast over their front side. This illumination seemed to alter the feel of the world. Unlike before, everything was crystal clear; even mere specs of dust could be seen floating around them. The two continued to eyeball each other, waiting for something to happen. Eventually, Finn got tired of this and began to speak.

"Who are you?" He asked.

The skeleton continued to glare at him as he refused to answer. Soon, the realm completely began to crumble before them, and Finn's opponent disappeared into the blinding light. The ground shattered below Finn, and images of where he was in his world surrounded him. He woke up in the train car connected that was nearby the conductor's. Thankfully, he had easy time getting up, despite his wounds. As he stretched out his arm to help himself get up, he realized that his sapphire adorned sword stayed with him.


	3. Chapter 3

The End Chapter 3 Rough Draft 1

Days Remaining Until the Apocalypse: 351

The gentle pitter patter of rain echoed through the tree house. BMO looked out the window to admire the gray sky. The robot always wondered something about the rain: If living things drink water, why don't they drink rain? It was a spectacle that it never truly understood, because BMO has never been able to consume water like Finn and Jake. In truth, it kind of made the robot feel just a little bit left out. It tried asking most of its living what is like to drink liquid. Heck, the robot didn't even understand what it was like to eat. It's rather difficult to explain the sensation of eating and drinking to an individual who can do neither. After all, BMO's face was merely a screen.

Finn and Jake were almost ready to depart for the Candy Kingdom. BMO had been there only a few times, so its memory of the that place was a little hazy. All that it could remember was that it was made entirely of sugary sweets. For those that never visited the kingdom, it was a place that only seemed to exist in pure imagination. For that reason, BMO was, in its synthetic mind, justified in asking to join Finn and Jake. The two another look outside; it was practically raining sideways.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Finn said. "Besides, there's nothing for you to do over there. Bubblegum has all the fun stuff closed for the emergency meeting."

The robot formed a curious expression. "Meeting? I was not aware of this."

"Haven't you heard?" Jake asked. "It even said so in Ooo Weekly: Kingdoms are Meeting to Discuss the Arson Epidemic."

Finn turned towards Jake. "We're still receiving that?" He asked. "I thought you stopped paying for it."

Jake laughed. "They don't know that," he said. "Speaking of which, where is it?"

BMO looked around the living room, but couldn't find it. "I don't mind having nothing to do," said the robot, getting back on the topic it favored.

Finn was opening the door as the robot was speaking. Before he could say anything, the air burst inside the home, and nearly blew several things off the tables. BMO was knocked on its back, and Jake had to help the robot up due to its rectangular design. To get up easily, a normal person would need to bend their back to lift themselves up, but BMO's simple, cube-like design didn't have a bendy spine. Although the help was greatly appreciated, BMO couldn't help but be humiliated at its inability to do a task others could do with ease. The three were unanimous in their answer, but the level of disappointment was the opposite. With that, Finn and Jake made their departure through the hurricane.

BMO heard the door click in place as they made their leave, and the house seemed to go quiet. It stood there for a moment just to be sure that they didn't forget anything. A situation like that would interrupt its private time. When it became apparent that they weren't coming back for a few hours, the robot went to the basement check on Neptr. With the other robot's sleep mode activated, BMO knew that it was truly by itself.

The bathroom door creaked as BMO pushed it open. It made a mental note to remind them about that squeaky bathroom door. These rooms were odd places for robots; many living organisms carry out functions that artificial beings couldn't really understand. Alas, that didn't stop BMO from trying to imitate them. The robot went behind the toilet where it kept a secret glass cup. BMO climbed to sink, filled the cup with water, and pretended to urinate.

"BMO," said a voice from the mirror, "I've been waiting here for ages."

"Just hang on," replied BMO. "I'm almost ready."

BMO emptied its make-believe bladder and climbed up to the sink. Sitting in a cup was Finn's toothbrush; it was rather dry, and seemed like it hadn't been used in some time. The hygienic tool stood there, enjoying its own glossy blue coat. The toothbrush, however, felt as though it could do without the fingerprints. Thankfully, since prints such as that can only be left by the living, BMO didn't leave any signs of tampering when using it. The robot rubbed the toothbrush on its screen, pretending that it was cleansing its teeth. BMO, of course, didn't use any toothpaste. Sometimes, the robot still wonders why "minty" is used to describe toothpaste. In fact, BMO couldn't grasp the notion that mint is different from cold, due to various comparisons everyone makes of the two. After setting the toothbrush aside, BMO turned around to doublecheck if anyone was looking. Nobody seemed to be intruding until a gust of wind ambushed BMO from behind. At first, it seemed like it was some sort of wind wizard, but it was just pure nature. Not having to worry about much else, BMO greeted Football, the voice from the mirror.

Football was almost like BMO's identical twin. She had an identical rectangular design, an aquamarine color scheme, and a set of buttons that mirrored BMO's. The similarities stop when one doesn't compare their aesthetic traits. Football stood in a way that was more confident and aggressive than the polite and gentile BMO.

"Hello, Football." BMO gently waved its hand. "Have you been working on your table manners."

Football sighed. "But it's boring."

BMO forwarded its pixilated brow. "It wouldn't be boring if you got it right the first time. You keep screwing it up on purpose!" It waved both of its arms around in a childish manner.

Football let out a chuckle. "Maybe," she muttered.

"All real boys and girls have proper etiquette. Now, we'll try tea time again, and I won't stop until you get it right," said BMO. The robot detached the mirror from the wall and carried it to the living room.

"But Finn doesn't have to do tea," said Football as they got on the coffee table.

"Finn's a real boy, but adventuring requires too much energy and causes him to get dirty."

Football smiled. "That actually sounds fun. I want to join Finn."

"No," shot BMO. "It's too dangerous for you. Finn can do because he's a lot stronger than us."

Football groaned in a manner that showed a mix of being annoyed and disappointed at once. She sat on the table, waiting patiently for BMO to set up the imaginary tea pot and cups. If they were real, they would probably be made up of some sort of fancy china. BMO instantly thought of Bubblegum's real tea set. Her collection of china was fitting for her status as a princess. BMO was sure that Bubblegum's servants cleansed and polished those things at least five times a day. Since the shine of her china rivaled that of precious metals, BMO couldn't forget the first and only time it could see such elegant tools for simple beverages. It looked back at the imaginary cups set up and started to frown in disappointment. In an act of jealousy, BMO imagined that its china not only had a better shine than the princess's, but also had been encrusted with diamonds. But that wasn't enough. BMO had to pull out the big guns. In each of the cups, there was an emerald resting at the bottom. This made the cup enchanting to look at on its own, but it also possessed the magic ability transform the flavors of the tea to suit its drinker. It didn't stop there; whenever one of the cups were set down, one beautiful, if simple, firework went off in the sky. Following that spectacle, a piece of bread would spontaneously appear in front of a duck who didn't have the gift of an old person feeding them.

This supposed comeback did elevate the robot's mood a little bit. Football was getting increasingly rebellious against the situation. In the first few lessons, she'd do so well. Not a single motion was out of order when BMO gave instructions. Now, Football purposely tipped over the cup, spilling the tea. Good thing it was imaginary; the towels were one of the things that BMO couldn't reach. Both knew that the reason for this misconduct was Football's readiness to experiment with adventure. Then, BMO had an idea to get this bad behavior to stop.

"How about this?" BMO asked. The question caused Football to pause her actions. "If you stop misbehaving, we can play adventure."

Football collected her thoughts before answering. "Sure," she said. Although it wasn't as exciting as real adventuring, pretend was better than nothing.

BMO showed Football how to properly hold the teacup. Her skill in doing so showed no signs of decline. Of course, BMO was the only one in the house that seemed to care. Football looked toward BMO, noticing that the robot seemed to avoid direct eye-contact with her. BMO sat down its cup and looked at the rain covered window. Football began to speak, hoping to break the awkwardness of the sudden silence.

"Hey BMO," Football said, "is something wrong?"

"Just thinking." BMO took a sip of the tea.

"Are you thinking about the princess again?" Football's remark was met with a frown.

"Just a little bit," said BMO. Many children grow up seeing people, real or fictional, enjoy the luxuries of being either rich or royal. Many grown women can't forget when either their young selves or others went through a princess phase. It was a life that one would naturally admire. BMO saw it as the focal point of happily-ever-afters. Reaching that point would be comparable to heaven; one could get everything they ever wanted and not lift a finger.

Football snapped her fingers to regain BMO's fleeting attention. While the robot was released from dreamland, it wasn't Football's gesture that caused the awakening. The cause of it was a blurry figure on the horizon. The idea that someone was out in this hurricane baffled BMO. But any thoughts of the wandering person were interrupted by Football's continued pestering. She rushed through her lessons as fast as she could to get to what she deemed fun. Although BMO wanted to spend more time on tea, it decided that it was best to keep its word. At least preparation for such play was minimal, with the only requirement being an active imagination.

The first thing that was thought of was a bridge, but Football said that it wouldn't be a good place to hide the ultimate monster. The next thing that was suggested was a castle, but that idea has been overdone. But then, Football remedied the simplicity of the castle idea. Instead, they went with the idea of a fort protecting a village a mile south.

Part of the fort's outer wall had collapsed from the pressure it had recently faced. Several of the archer outpost ceased to be anything but a pile of rubble, which would theoretically leave the place open to be ransacked. However, there was one being that singlehandedly took over the establishment. With flames acting as patches for the fortress's wounds, nobody landbound could enter or exit. Getting comfortable on the highest roof of the fortress was a twenty-foot tall dragon with flames pouring out of his mouth after every breath. Of the crowd of soldiers involved in the spectacle, there were three different actions they were taking: chilling as a skeleton, running way, or wetting their pants. The only exception were two knights mounted on their horse. The light of the fire reflected of their sets of shining armor, creating a soothing shine to those fortunate enough to see it. They were Squire BMO and Lady Football!

Unlike the other knights of that army, they remembered to bring pole-vaults. With their tools, they leaped over the blazing wall and infiltrated the fortress. Leaving the horse behind would mean that they wouldn't gain enough moment to pull an escape like that. But, it was a knight's duty to never retreat and never surrender. BMO and Football knew that, and marched to take back what belonged to their army. They jumped over pulls of lava and evaded the dragon's fiery breath while the very foundation of the fortress was crumbling in on itself. Things changed when they made it to the room penultimate to the dragon's. The duo stood still when they picked up the faint trace of an ominous, unfamiliar sound. The source of it wasn't the dragon. If it was, then the noise would've been much more discernable. Upon further hearing, they could make out the sound; it was an aggressive pounding in the distance. They agreed to take cover and distance themselves from the unknown force. They were wise to take cover, because they could hear the collapse of the western wall as another entity seemed to join the fray. Following the destruction of the wall, a heavy windstorm was brought upon the fortress. Sadly, the wind did nothing to subdue the flames. If anything, the flames were fanned to the point where they became even more volatile then they first were. Soon, a being of colossal proportions began to charge in the dragon's direction.

A giant was what they pretended the person to be. The one who torn down the stone wall was a guy who busted down the tree house's door. He climbed the ladder and made haste to the kitchen. He opened the fridge and scarfed down the most readily available food and drink, which included Finn's meatloaf. "Well, that was rude," thought the two. BMO thought the intruder looked familiar. Perhaps it was the lone figure the robot saw earlier?

If being wet wasn't enough, his apparel smelled like a rotting corpse. Thankfully, BMO and Football were spared of such a putrid odor. However, they weren't shielded from the dirty sight they witnessed. The color of his clothes was faded beyond belief, removing any sort of aesthetic pleasure. Holes ranging from big to small dotted his shirt and jeans, and judging from his shivering, the hooded cloak he was wearing did little to protect him. Just a little less than half of visible body was covered in large scabs; the rest was lined with varying degrees of dirt. The only thing that seemed to be in well-kept condition was an object wrapped in cloth. Compared to the material of his clothes, the object seemed to be in relatively fantastic condition.

BMO was intimidated by this person. What unsettled the robot the most was not his unclean appearance. His height was eerily like Finn's. Even though the cloak did do a good job of covering the intruder's body, BMO could tell that he also had a similar distribution of muscle and bone. The only obvious physical difference was his black coarse hair, which was unlike Finn's soft blond hair. Something about the juxtaposition of similar and contrasting traits felt rather uncanny too BMO. Football was also afraid of this unfamiliar figure, but, with a couple little things called courage and peer pressure, she metaphorically dragged BMO to confronting the person.

BMO crept up behind him. With every step, he seemed to continuously tower over everything. Before raising its voice, the robot readied its twig, hoping to summon the same courage Squire BMO had. Football's presence did little to ease the robot's trembling.

"W-w-who dares intrude on this battle," squeaked BMO.

Upon hearing the robot speak, the person quickly turned around. He held the clothed item as his head darted in various directions, looking for who spoke. His body went tense along with his concentration. The young man went into a stance that could only be read as preparing for a fight. But then, he looked beneath him.

What he saw wasn't a threat. Upon him was a small, scared robot standing next to a mirror. The sight was downright pitiful from the way he saw it. A fragile, scared little electronic using a twig as a makeshift sword. He could easily pick up and throw the thing across the room if it dared to challenge him. He set down his wrapped object and went out of his tense state. Instead of acting out that violent thought, he simply stared down the robot. This added a pinch of impatience to BMO's frightened state.

"The dragon can wait," shouted BMO, who was still frightened. "What art thou's name, giant!"

BMO pointed the twig toward the intruder, trying and failing to look brave. He laughed at this gesture, realizing that the robot was basically just an innocent kid. He patted the top of BMO's head and took down his hood. "I'm sorry about that. Did I scare you?" He said. A welcoming smile made its way on the young man's face. To answer the question, BMO nodded. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Red. I needed a place to sit out this storm, so I let myself in." BMO went to peak at the front door and noticed that the knob was knocked clean off the main door. The robot gave Red a glare of disappointment.

Red gave a nervous laugh. "Hey, I thought no one was home!" BMO was unfazed now that his intimidating image seemed to vanish. "Alright," Red said. He decided to give in to the inferior's silent demands. "I'll see if I can fix the door for you." Red finally said.

He went to the piece of property he damaged. Red didn't enjoy getting close to the cold weather again, but he decided he had nothing to lose. He studied the door and its severed knob, but it only served as a reminder of one fact about himself.

"Wait a second," said Red. "I don't know how fix doors." So, he cheated by grabbing some duct tape to keep it shut. "Good as new!" He presented his work of art to BMO with a thumb up.

BMO threw the twig at Red's face in to make its opinion clear. Such twigs were harmless to nearly anyone who wasn't an insect. He knocked it aside to show his lack of appreciation for the criticism. "I'll just hire a tool guy after this storm," he said. Red looked around the treehouse. To the visitor, this was cozy place. Being caught in a storm like that would make anyone grateful for a warm shelter. Although, he couldn't figure out how the walls were still stable, since much of it was comprised of leaves. At least the floor made sense because of its stable wooden planks. He continued to look around until he saw the bathroom.

"Hey, if you don't mind I'm going to myself cleaned off." Red shooed away the flies hovering over him, grabbed it clothed possession, and darted to the bathroom. Immediately, Football and BMO could hear the water starting to run. They still viewed the visitor as a bit odd and weren't sure what to do about him once he got out.

"What a wierdo," said Football. "Do you think he'll really hire a repair guy."

BMO shrugged. "I'm not sure. Do you think we should wake up Neptr? Maybe he'll know what to do."

Football nearly laughed. "That kid? Won't he just throw pies at him or something like that? Besides, isn't that against proper etiquette?" She leaned back to emphasize the sarcasm in her remark. Football snapped her fingers. "I have an idea!" Football said, almost shouting. "I haven't seen too many real people myself, so I don't know if what you said was true." BMO looked at Football with intrigue. The robot wasn't sure where Football's idea was going. "I can't be seen around Finn and Jake, but Red might never visit again. Also, he shouldn't have much of a reason to bring up interactions if he does meet them. I want to see if that real boy has proper etiquette like you said." BMO basically gulped. If Football discovers that the claim is false, she'd lose all motivation to continue the lessons. The robot had to think fast to figure out a rebuttal.

"But, what if Red's an adventurer too?" BMO said.

"Well, this is getting suspicious. First, it's Jake, then Finn, and now, Red. Is everyone an adventurer or something?" Football shook her head while flaunting a smug looking smile. She interrupted the robot as it was about to speak. "I'm just going to ask Red myself," Football concluded. She decided that an answer out of BMO would be unreliable. It was time to get an answer straight from the horse's mouth.

Red peaked his head out of the bathroom. Seeing the head of the visitor triggered another thought about his similarities to Finn. Except for the hair, the size and shape of his head were the same as the human that lived there. BMO made a mental note to consider it later, since it could just be a mistake in the robot's perspective. Since BMO was spoken too, the robot looked at Red with open ears. "Do you have any extra clothes I could use?" He asked. BMO shushed Football when she tried to speak and went to fish something out of the closet. All the robot could find were a bunch of light blue t-shirts and dark blue shorts. Finn obviously didn't focus too much on fashion; the only bit of variety was one old shirt with a small, hastily stitched in pocket. BMO brought a pair to Red, who, with a bit of reluctance, accepted the outfit. They fit nicely, but Red couldn't help but find them childish compared to what he usually wears. However, the immature look of the clothes did not interfere with how grateful he was.

"You sounded like you talking to someone," Red said. "Who else is home." After letting the towel soak some water from his hair, he threw it on the ground instead of hanging it to dry.

"Hello," said Football, "BMO was talking to me." The robot in question wasn't fast enough stop Football from blurting out those words. After all, BMO never agreed to let her and Red meet. Red looked at BMO, who had the mirror by its side. The fact that he didn't see Football confused him.

"Pardon my friend here. My name is BMO, and this is Football." At this point, BMO had no choice but to let them met. Otherwise, it would look weird. BMO held up the mirror and angled it to show a reflection of itself. "Nice to meet you," said Football.

Red, however, still couldn't see Football. From his perspective, the mirror was just that, a mirror. It didn't house Football. All it did was show a reflection of little BMO. After putting two and two together, he decided to play along with what BMO perceived the mirror to be. This was, however, at the expense of a natural sounding speech. The words that came out of Red's mouth were those of forced politeness.

"So," he said. He began to trail off. "Thanks, I guess." He started to stretch to so he wouldn't have to focus all his attention on the possibly delusional AI. When it became clear that Red wasn't going to initiate further conversation, BMO took up the mantle. This way, Football wouldn't risk doing anything stupid.

"We were in the middle of playing adventure," said BMO, hoping that it could distract them from Football's question. "You can be the giant and help us slay the dragon."

Red chuckled. "Oh yeah, I remember you calling me one of those. I think I have a better idea." Red began to snap his fingers, expecting something to happen.

BMO looked at Red with intrigue. "What are doing?"

As Red grew impatient, he finally achieved the desired result. A small flame appeared from his hand. All three looked at the magic in awe. "Yes," he said with great joy, "I thought I lost this power." He turned toward BMO. "I think the role of a dragon suits me better." He tilted his head to show his confidence. BMO didn't see anything wrong with it, so they made the giant imaginary instead.

They played for few hours. Red was a good at being the dragon; he knew how to make his intimidation stay fresh for that time. With time, Red gained further control of the flame, making harmless fireballs that immediately fade away just before contact. Since he was holding back the destructive potential of his magic, the worst Red could do would be to make someone sweat. Even though they were seemed inept, the presence of actual fire was enough to make the game ten times more exciting. Not only that, but his unpredictability was enough to kept Lady Football and Squire BMO on their toes. Red did, however, started to get bored after the second hour. But since the hurricane refused to settle down, he didn't have much else to do.

Football was happy that Red was trying to end that game. She could finally get her question answered! BMO wasn't as happy, so trying to stall the finale seemed ideal. The Squire then told Red that, to properly end a game, he needs to prepare a grand finale. Judging by his facial expression, Red had an idea that he deemed perfect.

The entire floor became covered in flames. Wanting to avoid the game's main obstacle, BMO and Football made their way to the top of the couch. Red sat on top of one of the kitchen chairs and put on an exaggerated smile to look evil. The act would've almost been convincing if he didn't break into laughter.

"You will never defeat me!" Red proclaimed. He gasped and tipped himself over. "Oh no!" The more he spoke, the worse his acting became. "Now the brave adventurers can land the final blow, but they better hurry, because they only have one minute!" He couldn't help but continue to laugh at the situation.

The brave duo did their best to leap across the house's furniture. Meanwhile, Red was counting down from sixty to one out loud. He noticed the two struggle to make it across, by the time he reached thirty, the two weren't even half way there. The only way for the grand finale to work would be if they arrived on time, so he slowed down his counting. He had to this until one second started to last for one minute. This lasted until they reached Red. By that point, there was a good 25 seconds on the clock. Red then began to count down at an absurdly fast rate. After all, every good finale has the heroes arrive in the nick of time. Just before Red reached one, BMO had smacked him with the twig, breaking it in the process. Despite it the ineffectiveness of the weapon, Red just pretended it pierced his heart. He let out one last, mighty roar and fell into his own flames. Red tried to fall with grace, believing that his favorite form of death, an ironic one, should never be done without turning it into a work of art.

The dragon burned in the very fire that he created. Every flame that came close to him grew as bright as the sun. Soon, the wrathful creature was not more This was, of course, simply pretend. Red lied there with his mouth and eyes open, trying to imitate a normal death pose one would see in a movie. The flames soon dispersed, leaving the area as it was before the dragon unleashed his fury.

The roles they were playing also faded into the air. Shortly after, they stood up as normal. "That was amazing," BMO said smiling. "I told you that I'm good as a dragon," Red said. He returned the friendly gesture with his own polite, but still cocky smile. At that point, BMO forgot that the illusion it placed Football under was being threatened. Seeing that BMO was finally starting to let its guard down, Football knew that it was time to strike.

"Hey, Red." With those words, the blade made its way through the curtain, revealing the sunlight of truth. BMO tried to interrupt Football, but she counter-interrupted the robot with a swift, "Shut up, BMO."

To BMO, Football stood confidently and faced Red. However, to Red, it appeared that only BMO was talking. Red laughed at this and figured that, whatever question, it would be worth listening to.

"This bore thinks that every living person knows how to have 'proper etiquette.'" Football was pointing at the embarrassed robot. "So, tell me Red, does a real boy like you know how to act at a tea party?"

Red shrugged his shoulders. "I actually don't know. My folks never had time to teach me."

Football was at a point at a peak in her smug state. She put her hands on her supposed hips and looked at her counterpart with a mischievous grin. "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk," Football said. "Looks like little BMO mislead me." She directed her attention from BMO to Red. "Well, if you never been to a tea party before, could you join us in one now? I've always wondered how others view it."

Red looked outside. He noticed that it wasn't raining as hard as before. It would still be a little while before the eye of the hurricane would approach. He thought if he left when it reached his present location, he would have enough dry time to get where he had to go. He went along with Football's idea to kill some time. However, as soon the tea party commenced, he immediately started to regret his decision. It was as if Football was trying to be as deliberately annoying as possible with the rules and regulations. What harm did it cause if his elbows sat on the table, or refused if his pinky finger refused to lift while he sipped?

But in terms of discomfort, Football herself seemed to be the self-appointed queen. Honestly, the more he saw BMO act as if there was another sentient robot in the mirror, the more the unsettling the whole situation became. At first, Red thought that Football was only an imaginary persona. Now that the two could be observed in a more slow-paced environment, BMO looked like it was taking Football's possible presence a little too seriously. Red had seen kids smaller than him play with imaginary friends, and no other imaginary friend argued as much as Football does with BMO. The two we're going back and forth about stuff that he found rather petty. The whole argument was tough to keep track of due to them sounding the same. Red stopped paying attention altogether when they reduced their word choices from legitimate-sounding claims to one-word rebuttals that only a child would use, such as "butthead" and "meanie." Suffice to say, Red wanted to get up and leave the two to their own quarrel. He figured that he stayed to long, they would try to pressure him into taking a side. The conflict at hand just didn't seemed to interest him that much.

"Red!" BMO said. A lot of anger was put into saying that name. To calm the tension building up inside its emotional circuit boards, it let out a sigh. "I need to get more sugar," lied the robot. BMO grabbed a nearby picture frame. "Make sure Football stays still." The mirror was hosted on the frame. The thing itself was shaky. Red had to help the robot to make sure the mirror wouldn't slip off. Since the mirror was much larger than the picture frame, this proved to be difficult. They finally got it to stay still and promised each other not touch the thing in the slightest. BMO carefully got off the table and made its way to the kitchen.

Waiting for more frustration was a rather boring and pointless task. The girl was no longer in the mirror. The only thing he saw was an almost clear reflection of himself. The mirror had a few scratched spots and a crack at the edge, but it didn't hinder the image of himself. Red got bored looking at himself, so he checked the weather. With rain pouring down at an even faster rate, he became annoyed. He was growing impatient with the rain and needed some sort of stimulation. Since "Football" seemed hellbent on making sit through a tedious tea party, his options for getting it were limited. The first thing that came to mind was the act of killing Football.

Red thought about what BMO's reaction would be. Seeing the robot scramble at such a surprise was a sight he thought worthy to behold. Considering the robot's puny strength relative to anyone he has ever known, he thought it would be inevitable for it to become a punching bag one day. Since he viewed himself as a catalyst for inevitable events, Red felt justified and tiptoed his way to the other side of the table, making sure that BMO didn't see the act. Red held back the energy in his pointer finger with his thumb. He smiled at his reflection and unleashed a flick near the top of the mirror.

However, something prevented him from fully listening to the satisfying thud when hit the ground. Upon the action, he heard the faint sound of footsteps coming from the entrance, which was followed by a short gust of wind. Feeling as though a potential threat was behind him, his first instinct was to jump out the window, since there were no obvious good spots to hide in. Of course, the resulting fall was unfortunate. Landing in the mud was enough to soil the results of his shower, but at least he was less dirty than when he arrived. He took shelter by the tree's trunks; there, he was somewhat protected by the canopy and main body of the tree. He missed the warmth of the inside. But, it had to be sacrificed to reduce risk of getting killed. He listened closely, wanting to hear the unfamiliar individuals before closing in on them. If they had shown any signs of malintent, Red would make a run for it.

There were two voices. The first one sound like a man in his late twenties. Nothing seemed alarming about him. The second one, however, caught his attention. He tried listening to the conversation that soon commenced, but the noise from the storm overshadowed it. The only thing Red could understand was that they were tired. He sat there for about twenty minutes. Soon, he couldn't hear anything from inside.

Without any sound coming from the interior, Red figured he was safe to enter the house again. Even though he missed the warmth, he realized that his priority was to retrieve his possession and clothes. He couldn't stand being in those shorts anymore; they left his legs exposed to the cold for too long. As he snuck in through the front door, he remembered that his clothes must've still been wet from leaving them in the bathtub to wash away the grime. He wished he just left his outfit dirty, then he would have less of an issue going out. He was silent as he made his way to the bathroom. It appears one of inconvenience was traded for another; he saw two brothers lumped on the couch, sleeping. No doubt, they were the source of the voices he heard earlier. He would only have to worry about one individual seeing him. As much as Red wanted to know more about the brothers, he knew he needed to focus on his objective.

The light was turned off in the bathroom. When he flicked the switch to make things visible, he noticed his outfit was missing. Thankfully, his wrapped possession was untouched. The bathtub had been drained of all the water the clothes sat in. Upon further inspection, he noticed that some of the grime and soap bubbles had been left behind. He turned the light back off. To hinder their sight if they woke up, Red also dimmed the lights in the living room. He heard the sound hot metal makes when it hits a wet surface. Red saw a cloud of steam coming from the kitchen.

Curious as to what was going on, he crawled to the kitchen. He couldn't make it without cutting himself a few times on the near-invisible mirror shards. Going around the field of broken glass he created, Red was almost brought to cursing several times. The only source of light in the kitchen, besides the windows, was a candle. Its illumination of the room was dim, but what was occurring. BMO was on counter, focusing its attention on a board. In the robot's hand, there was a clothes iron. BMO was pushing around the iron, creating more steam from the what the metal was touching.

There was one moment when Red could get a glimpse of BMO's face. The robot didn't have actual eyes, but it eyes still managed to seemed forcefully opened in shock. Under its eyes was a simple but powerful frown. BMO looked at Red and continued what it was doing. He got up and returned a look at the robot. For a minute, neither spoke. Red was just observing while BMO ignored everything to continue ironing. At one point, BMO stopped, felt the clothes, and folded them up.

"These are yours," said BMO. It handed the clothes to Red.

Red didn't recognize his clothes in this lighting, but as he unfolded his plaid shirt, he was happy with what BMO had done to it. Putting a blazing hot iron on wet clothes probably wasn't a good idea, but BMO made it work. A few holes here and there were the only remaining blemishes the shirt. The fabric held a welcoming warmth to it, making him quite eager to put it on. "Thanks," he said. His level of enthusiasm was the opposite of BMO's. Such a brief and laidback display of thankfulness was too much for the robot. Such behavior seemed to remind BMO about Football. This, of course, was too much to tolerate due to the circumstances. There was another stretch of silence.

"She's dead," said BMO. The robot started to tremble. "I don't understand. Why?"

Red stood firm, preparing to face accusations. He stared at BMO with an unreadable expression. Surely enough, the robot was not in the emotional state to take revenge on Football's murder. Probably more suited were the other residents. Just in case, he did intend on whacking BMO if he was exposed to them. It was a shame, considering that tidying up his clothes gave him slight sympathy for the thing he towered over. Red went to the drawer the find some tape in attempt to mend the mirror.

BMO spoke. "That won't work. Tape can put together a corpse, but resurrection is impossible." These words made Red shut the drawer and look back the robot. "I'm an idiot!" BMO started to break down. "I should have known Football would move!"

Those words trailed up Red's spine. It appeared to him that BMO didn't suspect Red at all. He wondered if it was just the sudden death of its friend that made the thing think irrationally, which could result in that assumption. However, he did remember how easily the mirror teetered. When he thought about that, it made a lot more since to him. The was nothing to lose if he kept up the act, so he played along with how BMO viewed him. "So, Football can't be revived?" Red asked. "Are you sure about that?"

The tears on BMO's screen seized to be when Red uttered those words. BMO, willing to listen to any sort of hope, was willing to listen to Red. "You can't just bring someone back to life. Finn and Jake tried it once, and they almost died.

Red shook his head. "Did they try going to Sanctuary?"

"What?" BMO asked in confusion. "I never heard of Sanctuary. I'm sure Finn and Jake never went there."

Now, Red was confused. Before then, Red had never known anyone who hasn't heard of that place. However, what he didn't know, is that nobody within a hundred miles would understand what he was talking about. Red was at least able to feel proud about having to explain what Sanctuary had to offer.

"I see your uneducated about the great Sanctuary," Red said. He begun to change out of Finn's outfit. "It is a place that bridges that gap between the afterlife and the land of the living. If we visit, there could be a way to get your friend's soul back." The last part was a lie. Red knew that since Football wasn't a real person, it would be impossible for her to have a soul. Nevertheless, BMO thought that there was some truth in what he said. In all honesty, who wouldn't want to resurrect their recently deceased friend?

BMO jumped. "Then we must get there, now!" Shouted the robot.

Red shushed the robot. "Hey, take it easy. We wouldn't want to disturb your friend's sleep, right? Anyways, unlike the living, Football is made of glass and metal, like you. There's no rush. If we bring her remains, she'll be fine."

BMO sad expression returned. "But I can't go with you," said BMO. "They don't believe that Football is real. I'm sure they'd just drag me back home. And I hate you inform you of this, but I'm not as strong as Football." Never has BMO felt so incompetent and weak. The robot always perceived itself as the weaker of the two.

Red sighed. That would mean that he'd have to do it himself. He unwrapped the clothed item, unveiling a sword that reflected the candle's light. Engraved in the sword was the word: Human. Red sat his weapon down and used the cloth to gather the glass shards. "Don't worry," Red said. "I can handle this myself."

"Wait," said BMO. "I hardly know you. How can I even trust you with something this major?"

Red, fully dressed in his shirt and jeans, stood there with his sword in one hand and the shards in another. His body glowed within the orange candle light. After a second, he gave a smile. BMO didn't know if was its own desperation that saw this, but his smile seemed to carry some sincerity. But the robot, ignoring whatever logical doubt it had, followed its desire to believe Red.

"Don't worry, I'll come back periodically to show that I won't forget," he said. "In fact, when I find the place, I'll show you for yourself. I think you'll like it there; the inside of sanctuary is like its own little realm. I dare say it's a paradise, dictated by pure imagination and holy energy." BMO still looked doubtful. The robot paced around the room trying to make sense of the situation. As much as BMO wanted to find another way, it had to realize that this only option. BMO tried to stand confident despite its limitations and looked Red in the eye.

"Do you promise?" asked BMO.

"I promise," said Red. He vanished into the darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

The End Chapter 4 Rough Draft

Day's Remaining Until Genocide: 354

The inside of the council building as large to Finn as the tree house was to BMO. For place that was designed for serious meetings between nations, the architects made that place more lavish than it needed to be. To prevent alienation for other kingdoms the council building was created with finest materials in Ooo. The floor and columns were made of some type of non-edible marble. The intention of that was for it to feel as generic for royalty as possible, which was a departure from the Candy Kingdom's norm. Finn questioned this designed decision, because he felt that such structure décor was utterly unnatural for the kingdom he devoted his life to. He couldn't help but feel as though some sort of national pride was being squandered.

As he strolled with Jake and Bubblegum, his mind wandered to a memory. Finn went back to when he was thirteen and him, Jake, and Bubblegum had to deal with the Lich. Honestly, he didn't understand why the princess had to summon the rulers from other kingdoms to deal with the recent problem. Per memory, the Lich was a bigger threat than the pyromaniac that was crawling around. That dark wizard had the ability to kill everything on the planet only to meet his end by Finn and Jake. One thing prevalent in his mind was that it was mostly him and his brother. Sure, they needed the Ice King's help, but it was only during their first encounter. Finn relished in the fact that defeating the Lich twice only showed how heroic they were. He hasn't heard such praise in ages.

Being the only one who's lost in their memories, he was deprived his surroundings of attention that they so desperately needed. As other nobles walked by, they seemed to looked at the nostalgic human with disgust. Little did he know, his obliviousness made him track bump into an unfamiliar princess. Since his obliviousness also made him track mud as he walked through, her dress was bound to be soiled. This disrespect earned Finn a slap to the face.

"Hey! Watch it!" He said. A red handprint was embedded in his cheek.

His organic eyes then met the onyx eyes the princess. Her skin was made of various precious metals; gold was the most prominent. Not only that, but she was adorned jewelry. Finn didn't understand how one could ever be comfortable while wearing loads of emeralds, topazes, and diamonds. However, the icing on the cake was her dress with platinum threads. Finn didn't know much about metal, but he was sure that her dress defied the laws of nature. One of her body guards came up. While humanoid, he was at least twice Finn's height and could lift the human with ease. Finn was jealous from both the guard's strength and titanium armor. Punching the guy would only give the human more damage. His helmet covered most of his face, so Finn could only see the guard's ruby eyes.

"Weakling, no one shall lay a finger on our princess!" He said. Gripping Finn with his left hand, he slowly started to choke him with his right. The metal giant only stopped only when he heard the soft but stern voice of Princess Bubblegum. "Let him down," she said. "He's an important ally of the Candy Kingdom. I'll pay for whatever damage was done." He loosened his grip but didn't let go.

"Very well," he said. He looked at Finn. "Keep yourself in line, squirm!" He tossed Finn across the room. Upon landing, Finn yelped.

"Are you okay, Finn?" asked Bubblegum. She held her hand out to Finn. Such a gesture instantly improved his mood.

He laughed of his bruises and asked who the unfamiliar royal was. Apparently, the metal people were from a kingdom on the opposite end of the continent. No wonder why they didn't show respect for Finn. Distance prevented them from knowing of the human hero. With his senses regained, Finn joined the three as they entered the conference room.

As Finn entered, he realized that it was more of an auditorium than a normal room. Five rows of court-likes desks circled three-fourths of the area, and the remaining space was occupied by a standard stage with a podium in the center. Each one had a microphone suitable for the upcoming discussion. Within twenty minutes, every seat was filled to the brim with at least one ruler and their respective body guard. Finn could relate to the servants of the lords. Looking around, anyone could see that most of them didn't want to be there, including Finn. As the discussion started, he could already feel the boredom kick in. An itch was starting to creep upon much of the seasoned fighters. Finn wanted to get out there and start punching the threat in the face. About fifty seats away from him, he could see the warriors he knew from the mountain. Naturally, since might makes right in their kingdom, they obviously shared a similar lack of interest. Besides the warrior king, the other rulers Finn could see looked disappointingly dainty. Of course, this was to be expected, because the other nations were only kingdoms in name only. Rather, the many kingdoms in Ooo were mostly run by city states governed by principalities. On the opposite side of the room, Finn could see the Ice King, who was merely an old fool, despite his title implying higher power. The monarch wasting his powers trying to impress the princess's around him, which would've worked if it weren't for his ancient age. Since seventy percent of the rulers were princesses, any young male royals would have an easy time get power through the creation of heirs. While Finn was trying to escape back to his land of nostalgia, he noticed a pattern with all the princesses he met: Most of them have nobody to take their place after death.

Before he could sit on this thought for long, Finn's mind wandered to something that he deemed more important. Bubblegum was speaking about her stance on the issue, but it didn't distract Finn's current daydream. He was remembering the time when he had to get some princess hair to save Jake. Looking back at the whole ordeal, Finn found it rather funny. One of his many attempts involved digging up the grave of a dead princess. The words on the gravestone said, "Here lies Princess Beautiful. She was so beautiful." He was ecstatic upon reading it, only to find out that she died of baldness. To this day, Finn still couldn't understand how that was possible.

He stopped daydreaming as it was the Goblin King's turn to speak. This sudden burst of attention wasn't due to the importance of the topic at hand. Instead, he focused more on what he was made of. He was the only royal in the room who was replaced with an inanimate stand in. The king was known to Finn and Jake as Whisper Dan, but the goblins were under the ruse that he was Finn. All the other royals viewed Gummy as the true leader and representative of the goblins. Finn could understand this; he remembered temporarily ruling the kingdom only to find that his servants forced him into inactivity. Still though, Finn was appalled when he realized the goblins still couldn't figure out the identity of his chosen scapegoat. Many of the other leaders soon shooed the delusional servant and his false king away from the podium.

As soon as a royal with proper etiquette took the stage, any attention Finn gave was ready to be lost. Although it didn't seem to help the situation, the sight of the metal bodyguard pound and rise from his table was a sight to behold.

"Why can't we just kill the guy!" After he said that, his table collapsed to the ground.

"Because," said a princess decorated in a breakfast themed outfit, "we can't prove that he's even just one person in these attacks. For all we know, he could be one of many."

The metal knight's voice became louder. "This person has already decimated most of the villages on the Candy Kingdom's eastern border. We already have the manpower to capture him. If we strike now, it should be easy."

"Not everyone has as many soldiers to spare; I'm not ready to leave my palace unprotected." She started to gain a similar aggressive stance.

"But wait," said Gummy, who was scrambling to get attention. "Why can't we just make peace with whomever we're dealing with? Surely, if comply with his wishes- "

"Silence!" The warrior king rose from his seat. "It's clear that the orchestrater of these crimes is the Flame Queen herself! Who else could set the towns on fire in a short amount of time?" Her majesty then responded by flinging a ball of fire at the him.

He ran down to the queen with the intent of recuperating the attack. But before he could do so, they were interrupted by the soft but stern voice of a young woman in her prime. Finn wasn't surprised about who it was, because he could recognize that voice in an instant. He smiled as she broke up the fight and drew the crowd's attention to herself. The silence from the crowd allowed Bubblegum's footsteps echo through the room. She was unfazed by the thousands of eyes staring at her. Wanting to make sure that what she said was perfectly clear, she pretended to clear her throat to test the state of the mic. Her tone of voice was that of a serious one. Thankfully, it wasn't to the point where the people weren't fazed by it, considering that her voice was that of a young adult continuously defying age. Finn compared her voice old enough to babysit, but not someone who would be ready for full-fledged motherhood.

"Enough of this petty disagreement," she said. "The brute king does have a point of the attacker being a fire elemental, but we have no evidence for that fact at this point." She gave a motherly smile. "Besides, I'm sure that it won't be long until we capture him."

"Can you please send troops to our kingdom then?" said Gummy as he was quivering.

"I'm sorry, but your kingdom is too far away from the recently attacked towns." Bubblegum pointed at the large map behind her. "Judging by the attacker's pattern, they seem to hit their next target within a four-mile radius."

The warrior king went back to his seat and sighed. He could see the disappointment in the goblin's eyes. "Weakling, I'm afraid that she's correct. As incompetent as your troops are, we'll need them sent to her desired location."

Gummy nearly fell over. "The king doesn't wish to give troops." He tried to hide himself behind his supposed ruler.

"You're king is just a heap of metal with cardboard box for a head!" The warrior king's words overcrowded any other noise in the room.

Gummy took those words more as a personal offence toward his king rather than a call from reality. Finn laughed at Gummy's useless behavior. He continued to listen to what they had to say. However, he only did so because he was waiting for himself to be mentioned. The only reason why he came here in the first place was to get orders on who to strike; everything else was considered meaningless chatter. In fact, Finn did believe that the only reason he paid attention was because he knew Gummy and how he wasn't more competent than he was years earlier.

Finn sat through the council, much to his boredom. Jake had to nudge him a few times to prevent him from dosing off. If there was one thing he learned throughout his life as an adventurer, he learned anyone trying to destroy the world won't amount to anything. It was weird, but it seemed like nothing could remained changed. Good guys win by default. Luckily for Finn, he always considered himself the good guy. Even if it wasn't his alignment, the annihilation and quick restoration of the Ice Kingdom cemented the idea of the threat doing any permanent damage. Unless whomever was behind this could create a scar throughout this land, Finn wasn't interested.

Finn then tried to sleep with his eyes open. However, such vulnerability didn't shield him from camera flashes everyone knows and hates. A twisted around in his seat from the unexpected sensory attack. His initial startle then faded away when he remembered the natural presence of journalists at political events. But when Finn he saw the photographer's face, his memory of seeing that same journalist a few days beforehand recreated his fearful reaction. Once again, he had to look upon a childish looking skull mask. The wearer of the mask seemed slightly confused. He looked at the seat near Finn and Jake. Confused, he decided to ask them after introducing himself as Skully. Finn grew suspicious of the little guy, but they shook hands and greeted each other regardless. He asked about where their princess was. Finn was reluctant to answer, but Jake politely pointed it out to him.

Skully looked at Princess Bubblegum. He was, in a way impressed by the fact that Finn and Jake served under her. His camera flashed one last time capture her youthful image. With photos of Finn, Jake, and the princess, he bid farewell to the two and walked away. Everyone else could take their eyes off the masked person, but Finn proved to be an exception. Only Finn noticed Skully drop one of his photos. Following his instinct, the human went to return Skully's possession.

Finn caught a few eyes as he followed the peculiar journalist, including those of the princess he served. For such a short person, Skully was walking fast enough to be out of Finn's reach. He followed him to the point where it was made clear that Skully was deliberately avoiding contact with the human. Their walking almost met the qualifications for running, and it turned into a brief cat and mouse game that ended with Skully making a break for the main entrance. He couldn't avoid him for much longer, because they were alone when they reached the hallway. The elegancy of the area was unmatched by any other assembly building in Ooo. The width of the area was large enough to fit in crowds of lords. Many decorations, little and large, gave the area its soul. Four foot windows lined one wall, while marble pillars lined both. In the middle was long, red carpet that appeared to stretch out for miles. The storm had finally passed, allowing the morning sunlight to shine in the area and give the room a faint morning glow. Finn was no longer restricted by the rules that accompanied royal presence, so he shouted to get Skully's attention. Pretending to ignore the human would seem like a foolish option. Isolated, Skully couldn't give the illusion of looking busy anymore. He turned around, looked the human in eye, and gave a sincere sounding greeting to mask his intentions. Despite how it sounded convincing, Finn could easily see through the façade.

Finn handed over the photo. Skully took it and thanked the young man. With that, Finn watched as the masked fellow headed for the exit. But Finn was still suspicious of him; he looked around, trying to find a way to continue talking with him. The first thing that came to Finn's mind was the recent paper. Surely, he would be obligated to answer questions about it.

"I've looked over the recent stories, but I can tell that there's only one you'd be interested in," said Skully. "There was something about the world's best warriors holding a tournament."

He refrained to mention any other news headline. The idea of a tournament did peek Finn's interest. After taking a beating like that from a random soldier, Finn wanted to prove his strength on a larger scale. He deemed his humiliation as a mere fluke. A lack of focus would leave anyone vulnerable to attack. But right now, Finn couldn't help but notice something off about Skully's eyes. While glowing and vibrant, they looked as though they were suspended in a void that existed beyond the mask. Finn stared into them, and the room began to darken.

A soft hand gripped Finn's arm. At first, he thought it was some sort of illusion and punched the hand's owner in the face. The room brightened up again, and Finn realized he had hit not a ghost, but Bubblegum. Using that as a distraction, Skully left the area. Finn immediately showed regret for his ironic mistake. Impatient with the boy, she dragged him back to the conference room, whilst he tried to explain his reason for fright.

Know, Finn was the center of attention in the room. Many eyes were fixated upon him. The way she forced Finn across the room would be comparable to how one would do so to a child. Some of the other guardians laughed at the weakness Finn had shown. The human almost wished he was thirteen, then he'd have more of an excuse to act that way. But alas, he was seventeen, an age where he was blooming into adulthood. He swore that lately he felt too dependent on her. Seeing that the only one sympathizing with Finn's show of weakness was Gummy (That would put his intelligence and sanity into question), Finn felt that it would be in everyone's best interest to change his new year's resolution to distance himself from the status as underling. The worst offender from this onslaught of ridicule was from the warrior king. The king laughed at the seemingly large gap of strength between them. He was strong enough to come to the conference without the need of a body guard. He originally thought that he was the outlier, being the only royal who didn't bring a retainer.

There was a thirty-minute intermission for the meeting. Many of the other used the time to refill their stomach. If it weren't for Jake, Finn would've gone the rest of the day hungry. He half-heartedly ate the peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. Finn tried to show appreciation, but the meat products the others owned distracted him. A few groups of knights and princesses even had a giant looking turkey. The more he looked at the roasted thing, he couldn't help but think of the impracticalities of its situation. With the smell of exotic spices and visible juiciness coming from the turkey, Finn could tell that it was freshly cooked. He looked around the mess hall, spotting the kitchen. If having a turkey cooked in advance for an important government meeting wasn't a sign of how spoiled royalty were, he didn't know what was. At first, he thought he was feeling a mutual sense of unfairness with his equals, but Finn's sandwich was really the only poor man's lunch there. He quickly scarfed it down, not wanting to face another bit of embarrassment. He went to patch things up with the metal based guard. If there was just the chance of getting on his good side, he wanted to take it.

He walked over to the guy. The immediate rise of suspicion that built inside the metal man was enough to make him put down his iron mutton. The tournament was the first thing Finn mentioned after proper introduction and apology. He wanted another source to see if the information Skully gave was true. Surely enough, the guy barely knew what Finn was talking about. There was something strange about Skully's special mentioning of the tournament. Finn, despite willfully bringing ignorance upon himself, he wasn't a fool enough to believe that Skully didn't mention the event without purpose. The events on both encounters just point to it being a trap. There wasn't a shadow of a doubt in his mind.

When the conversation didn't seem carry any more substance, Finn was ready to leave. If only if he wasn't interrupted by mouth of a certain warrior king. He had heard about the tournament in passing, but the information that was presented to him made it out like it wasn't anything major. The idea of having the world's strongest compete sounded like nothing more than a marketing ploy. While most of the table agreed with the suggestion, their still existed a keen interest amongst the fighters. Some decided to look into it when they returned home, while others were ready to brag of their strength. With some of the surrounding spirits rallied, a few other fighters, including Jake joined in the conversation. The presence of fellow warriors made Finn feel more welcome than he did earlier. Regardless of kingdom or powers, a warrior is still a warrior. They live for the thrill of battle and the pursuit of strength. In their wake lies great danger to them and their fellow man. This created a rift between those who were once on the brink of death and those who's worries were fixed on civil problems.

Those of non-violent royalty were uninterested in the matter, except for Bubblegum. If what they were talking about was anything more than just a passing idea, she wanted to know about it. Although she knew such a thing was benign, she feared that the others could get too unfocused from what was important.

There was an increase in competition amongst those at the table. So much so, Finn also got caught into the braggart mentality. Finn challenged the metal behemoth again, hoping to show that he wasn't a mere wimp as his previous lose implied. However, their rematch only lasted one millisecond longer than what preceded it. Finn accepted defeat this time. Despite being stuck in a wall now, he was still in rather high spirits. Bubblegum shook her head when she realized that Finn thought he could eventually surpass the other warriors.


	5. Chapter 5

The End Chapter 5 Rough Draft

Days Until Genocide: 340

BMO was waiting for Finn and Jake in the castle's lobby. For the third night in a row, the brothers return to castle was delayed by the weather. Throughout the Candy Kingdom and grasslands, puddles and tiny rivers of run-off. For the first two nights, BMO was lucky enough to get here via remote-controlled toy car. There was one obstacle that BMO remembered well. The border separating the normal soil of grasslands with that of the kingdom faced an epidemic of run-off rivers. The dirt of the Candy Kingdom was made of chocolate, making some people wish to keep it clean for consumption. Since one part of the larger cleaning plan was to separate the kingdom's ground from the dirty world, the shovel markings from the fruitless labor were abundant and deep. That night, with its rampant and aggressive flooding, allowed the toy to be carried away by the current. If Red hadn't visited the robot on that night, BMO wasn't sure what it would've done.

Red had intended to visit the robot on accounts of the promise he made. Despite visiting Finn and Jake's house a second time in a row, he had yet to meet the actual owners of the property. The very mentioning of the Candy Kingdom was enough to make Red eager to tag along with BMO. If the robot recalled, Red may or may not have mentioned never visiting there before. Regardless, judging by the smile and jittery eager eagerness of the young man, one could see that his anticipation rivaled that of child heading to a theme park. Once BMO was left without a ride, he volunteered give it a ride. He insisted to carry BMO bridal-style. The robot was okay with this, despite the intimate nature of the hold. BMO only found things to be a little weird when Red touched most of BMO's body, getting a good feel of the plastic and glass textures. BMO remained silent about this, and made light chat about the scenery of the kingdom.

Red left, explaining that he had something to do. BMO had no issue with this, since Jake was large enough to carry everyone home. The main reason why BMO was needed in the first place was to make sure neither Finn nor Jake fall asleep on the way back. Red vanished into the darkness shortly after BMO sat down in the castle lobby. It sat there, watching the rain hit the windows at it fell from the greenish-gray sky. The lights did little in illuminating the area, making the robot feel more isolated than it already was. Minutes passed, but no one appeared, so BMO went to the door in hope of finding any sign of life. Seeing several buildings outside the palace with their lights on lessened the looming isolation, even though the rain prevented it from reaching other people. BMO went to search for others in the adjacent rooms. Luck was clearly messing with the little system at this point, because the halls were even more dimly lit than the main entrance. The fact that no one was maintaining the castle at this hour intrigued BMO. As far as the robot knew, the guards were supposed to be patrolling at this hour.

The door was busted open. Coming inside were a crowd of soldiers. BMO jumped at the sight, afraid that this was an invading army. However, after seeing the angry princess who was leading the soldiers, BMO's shock had subsided. Seeing the bright pink being stomp with such ferocity was a sight to behold, especially so due it being followed by her sounding an emergency alarm. She was unconcerned about state of her tired troops as she saw this castle's guards scramble to pour out of the hallway. Bright light soon filled the room, making everyone that was adjusted to the darkness flinch. BMO couldn't enjoy this knew illumination, because what followed was the monarch's voice yelling. Although BMO couldn't figure out the words she was saying, the bulky soldiers practically knelled to voice of their slender commander. Without question, her presence and willpower dominated the room.

All the soldiers then scattered across the room. Some troops went to the infirmary, others went on patrol, some went to some sort of meeting room, and others just went home. The meetings regarding military strategy were unimportant for BMO. It can only remember one time where someone caused it to erupt in violence, so the idea of setting foot on a battlefield was unthinkable. Going past BMO was a seven-foot tall metal soldier, lumbering his body around and stumbling occasionally. BMO didn't realize this, but that was the same soldier who dominated Finn a few days back. After taking a few steps forward, he succumbed to his fatigue and fell asleep on the castle floor. Of course, he was merely the first to show vulnerability. A few more soldiers then fell to the ground.

After pondering the impossibility of itself being able to handle the same level of these soldiers, BMO jumped out of its seat to search for its friends. It wondered the halls, seeing that the change in lighting had given new life to this place. Most of what BMO saw was either in the color of pink or yellow. It felt as if that previous state of the palace had never even existed. BMO was about to check in the infirmary, but the princess's abrupt exit from there interrupted the robot via kick. For a moment, the princess forgot all the frustrations of her current situation to check for any damages on BMO. Thankfully, it was just a mere screen crack, so she took BMO up to her quarters for repair.

For Princess Bubblegum, such a repair only took five minutes. The room was quaint and separated from the chaos. This comfort was compounded with the comfy looking bed. The only thing out of place was the science equipment in the shelves and drawers. BMO, curious as to what happened to her and the army, asked about what happened.

Princess Bubblegum sighed. "Whoever this guy is, he just won't let us catch him." She plopped herself on her bed, not even taking the time to put on her pajamas. "What a coward."

"Where's Finn and Jake?" said BMO

"They're getting patched up in the infirmary." Bubblegum yawned. "I think they broke their legs or arms, maybe both." She then saw the terror in BMO's eyes. "Don't worry, they're just fine." _*****_ Trailing after sentence was some incoherent mumbling. Thanks to having one last flicker of mental willpower, her jumbled speech shortly regained its comprehensibility as BMO attempted to leave the room. "Wait," she said, "you should just stay here for the night. Finn and Jake are tired too."

If there was one perk to being a machine, it was the fact that it's incredibly easy to go to sleep. This came in handy, as BMO found no convenient sleeping areas for a normal small creature. All it needed was a stable surface and anything the size of a tissue, functioning as a makeshift blanket. The latter item was technically useless, but still proved make BMO ease the sense of vulnerability, like a knight feeling stronger with their armor on. There wasn't much for BMO to do at the castle, so it climbed to the table adjacent to the bed and activated sleep mode by the lamp spread.

Sleeping wouldn't be a good word to describe the state that the robot was in. Rather, it was more akin to being knocked out, minus the risk of brain damage and memory loss. BMO was completely incapable of dreaming. As with every other handicap BMO experiences, the experience of such sensations is incomprehensible to the machine. How could one define taste without ever tasting? How could one define smell without ever smelling? Why must one's imagination be strained to times when one is conscious? BMO never thought of these as existential crises, and simply vented them out during solitude, where one could easily live out their unattainable fantasies. In BMO's case, these fantasies included everything the robot knew about people, such as the need to brush teeth and urinate.

A few hours past, with all the castle reaching a state of slumber, save for the guards on patrol. Neither BMO nor Bubblegum could hear a ladder hitting the edge of one of the room's windows. Two beings climbed up the ladder, with one trying to be as stealthy as possible, and the other not caring about how loud he was. The loud one opened the window via sword, since he found opening it the traditional way to be boring. Thankfully, this didn't backfire, since everyone was in too deep of a sleep and none of the glass hit the princess.

"There she is, Skully. The final target in our quest," said the one who broke the window. The quietness of his voice wasn't consistent with his method of breaking and entering.

"We could easily just kill her now, you know?" Skully pointed to the neck of the princess. "One slice there, and she'll be gone for good."

With a height advantage assisting his authoritative position, the other person looked down at Skully. "I thought I told you before, that would be the coward's way out." He looked again at the opening. "But, I do have to admit, it is rather tempting." He stroked Bubblegum's soft, silky hair. "It's a shame," he said, "she's so beautiful."

"May we get back to business?" Skully asked.

"Yes," said the other, almost forgetting what they came here for.

Skully unscrewed the back of BMO and connected a chip to a specific area of its motherboard. Meanwhile, the tall figure was looking through princess's possessions, hoping to take something she held close to heart hostage. He was surprised to see that she had nothing resembling a stuffed animal from childhood, as that can be any human's most sentimental possession. He assumed that the princess lacked even sentimentality as, immediately after not seeing anything from childhood, he found a box labeled: "Rings from Rejected Suitors." _*****_

The box appeared to have little sentimental value, considering it was a shoebox containing rather expensive rings that technically didn't belong to the princess. As he went through, pocketing any ring containing either precious metals or gems, he noticed one lone mood ring. Just by looking at it, one could tell that the gold outline of the ring was fake. The thieves tested it, but only found that its mood reading function was disabled. They checked the labeling engraved inside the ring.

"From Finn," they read to themselves. The craftsmanship of the engraving was sloppy. It was as if a twelve-year-old wrote it with whatever small object he found lying around. The two put the ring back, figuring that it neither had enough monetary or sentimental value to be useful.

Skully scanned Bubblegum's closet, almost hoping to find skeletons. Luckily for him he didn't have to dig deep into her belongings, as there was shirt neatly folded on most reachable shelf. What made this shirt stand out was the note attached to it, rather than its design.

"Dear Princess," Skully read to himself, "after pulling some strings, Marcy helped us get another one of these shirts for you. Hope you enjoy the replacement! Sincerely, Jake." The urge to laugh at this stroke of luck almost took over Skully. But remembering the importance of remaining silent, he decided to wait until him and his partner were in the clear. Skully showed his partner the shirt. Its main color was black coupled with the design of a yellow snake coiled around two staked heads. Such a shirt lost whatever creep factor on them due to the heads being that of candy people. Something like this would've been too out of nature for the princess to buy on her own. Clearly, this was a gift from someone opposite, but close. They agreed to take the shirt, and Skully went out the same way he came in. The other broke a different window to get out, just because he could.

The princess's restful sleep was a restful one, clocking in at around the usual eight hours. Unfortunately, a loose shard of broken glass made this a rather rude awakening. Having stepped on it, the princess went to get a bandage for her foot. Later, Finn, Jake, BMO, and Bubblegum were standing back at the main castle entrance. Although the sight of it lingered with a sense of a laborious future, there was still some invigoration present in this new day. Jake went outside accompanied by Finn; they were both trying to make sure the former still had his powers working properly. BMO and Bubblegum waited for the duo. The princess let out a sigh. BMO, curious about such an expression of exhaustion, spoke up.

"You seem to be working hard," said BMO, stating the obvious. "Why are you still tired? Didn't you get your proper eight hours of rest?"

The princess turned towards BMO. "I wouldn't consider a problem with sleep. Whoever this killer is, he won't just let me be at peace." She crossed her arms. "Of course, this has to happen when I told myself to take it easy on work."

"Why don't you let someone else take your place for a while?" said BMO.

The princess scoffed. "Have you seen the princesses of the other kingdoms? They don't know a thing about military leadership, _*****_ so I'm doing the heavy lifting." She took a few steps while speaking, and flinched at a jolt of pain. Her mind was had little focus on state of herself. "Meanwhile, some of those so called 'warrior' kingdoms that have been gaining in popularity are just filled with dumb muscle."

BMO didn't know what to make of what Bubblegum said. Truly, there were several hundred kingdoms across Ooo. Considering that just a search party was as large as an entire army, BMO was under the idea that most of the kingdoms already banded together for this cause. But then, the robot remembered who the army was composed of: Giants made of hard metal, blue bodybuilders, the useless banana guards, and the duo that was currently outside.

"Your army seems to lack diversity." BMO's eyes were trailing off to the extraneous elements of the castle, such as a patio that has the dust an object could only get from sitting in one place for years. "Hey," BMO said with a slight outburst of cheerfulness, "maybe you can brighten your morning with a bit of the fancy tea you have."

The princess scoffed once again. "Try doing that with the other princesses. I have hardly enough time as it is." The princess petted BMO.

Upon seeing the duo finally get Jake's powers under control, Bubblegum waved them goodbye for the day. BMO, riding along with Finn and Jake, thought about the situation that the princess was in. Was it right for a princess to work so hard? BMO thought that, if it was in a similar situation, treating oneself would happen more often. _*****_ BMO stopped pondering that ideal situation once Jake had grown to gigantic size and started carrying the other two back to home. Jake had gotten used to growing the size of a house to transport those close to him. Finn, while he also had grown used to riding his brother, still very much enjoyed the expansive view given from the height gain. Of course, for someone like BMO, who's had a bit less exposure and is less than one foot tall, sightseeing on Jake's back was nothing short of breathtaking. It was a good thing the robot had a camera function.

They trio arrived back home; the casts of their wounds were only a minor source of inconvenience. The three were making some idle chatter as they walked through the door. BMO was last to enter the house. And, with the curse of tiny feet, one could bet that BMO would be more likely to stub them on really tiny objects. BMO, after a short, quiet yelp, looked down at the object that caused its foot suffering. Surely enough, it was gold ring covered with extravagant Celtic artwork and styled rubies. BMO walked inside seeing Finn and Jake's current treasure trove/entrance room. The room had heaps of gold and other unusual artifacts. While the gold wasn't as abundant as it was months prior, the trio were still sitting under some nice wealth. BMO tossed the ring inside a gold goblet, thinking that such a ring was just another piece of their treasure.


	6. Chapter 6

The End Chapter 6 Rough Draft

Days Until Genocide: 333

The storms had finally blown over region. However, with no rain to halt the destroyer's progress, there was rise in towns going up in flames. Princess Bubblegum looked over a map, which marked which towns were destroyed and in what order. The first few towns that were hit were wiped off the earth from west to east, with around half being in her own territory. She followed the trail, seeing that the attacker skipped the capital of her kingdom in favor of a small, defenseless village to the east. She was both puzzled and thankful about the fact that the threat didn't go for her home. However, not seeing the enemy for herself would deprive her of the knowledge needed to beat this thing. She looked further east along the map; several villages and landmarks littered the area, leading up to the Fire Kingdom. No doubt, their military would no longer be held back by the weather.

She left the map and entered another room down the hall. Once opening the door, she was greeted with the sight of wounded villagers. Many had burn marks, others had bandages to heal the cuts, and several more had entire limbs torn off. Happiness was void within this small, bluish-gray room of refugees. Bubblegum tried to talk to a few of them, but some were still trying to recover from shock. One even fell to ground, shaking and whimpering, with images of death still fresh in his mind. The one who was most fit to speak was crying her eyes out, which the princess responded with a tight hug.

"There there," she said, "You're safe now." She patted the woman on her back a few times.

Ten minutes of comforting followed. Being the only surviving group, the best comfort they could have would be to have their leader, their princess, their symbol of peace and tranquility, tend to her subjects with great care and compassion. Bubblegum looked at the woman again, seeing that she was holding a small binky with no one young enough to use it. The princess almost shed a tear.

Bubblegum eventually got the woman to speak. Finally, she could get some information from them about the threat. That was the moment Finn had entered the room. Seeing the human, roughly half of them scrambled their way to the wall farthest from him. Naturally, Finn didn't know why they were doing that. "Demon!" one shrieked. "Demon! Get him away! Away!" Another was trying their best to break the window and jump out of the castle, even though they were three stories up. Finn ran out of the room, understanding that he wasn't welcome, without knowing why. Bubblegum tried to get them to speak clearly, but the state they were in prevented all rational thought. She gave another hug some of the refugees and told them she'll return shortly. She went after Finn, who was on a seat in the hallway.

"I should be getting on more information on the enemy soon," she said. "It'll take a little longer now, though." She was tempted to cross her arms. "So, what was it that you wanted to show me? It better be important."

Finn had a VHS tape in his hand. "You're going to wanna see this," Finn said rather bluntly and gave the princess the tape. Judging from the scratch marks and leftover bits of dust, this thing had clearly seen better days. She compared the tape to ones that she owned, noting that, despite the ancient condition of the outdated technology, she was still able to keep such things in mint condition. The two found the VHS player that the princess had owned and began to watch it.

Two faces appeared on the screen, one familiar and one unfamiliar. To the right was Skully, hiding a smile behind his mask. Next to him, was Red, who was trying his best to look polite, with his hands placed behind his back like a butler. This attempt didn't do anything to make the situation calming, since his apparel was that of a hobo, with various stitched together rags used to form a baggy outfit.

"Hello there, people of this world," Red said. "Me and my partner here know of the massacres that plagued the various kingdom's these past few weeks." His words sounded distinctively scripted, as if they were rehearsing lines for this tape. "We sincerely apologize for the delay, but we would like to clear something up." He picked up a sword. "Do any of you recognize this sword?" He flaunted it, showing off the ruby engraved in the hilt and the carvings beside it. Finn's heart raced when he saw that "Human" was the word engraved in Red's belonging. Finn drew his sword, needing to make sure that his sword was parallel to Red's. After confirming this truth, he swallowed the astonishment and fear he had to pay attention to what his adversary had to say.

"To all the kings and princesses who receive a copy of this," Red continued, "I'm sure that your soldiers recognize this weapon. I hope that it is has struck fear in the hearts of whoever survived this, but I digress." He put his sword down. "I'm saddened to say that we couldn't introduce ourselves earlier." Red glanced towards Skully. "However, I received… numerous requests to not do so until I tested my strength." He returned his gaze towards the camera. "I have a plan for this world, and to enact that plan, I need a certain item." He pulled out a map of Fire Kingdom, showing its overhead geography and subterraneous features. "Deep underneath this Kingdom is another sword, one that's even stronger than this one." He put the map behind him. "If the Fire Kingdom wishes to stay intact and receive no casualties, then I expect to see all civilians and soldiers evacuated. Of course, if anyone wishes to attempt to capture me while I retrieve it, then I'll retaliate with all my might." Skully began to laugh.

"I will arrive at the kingdom in five days. If you need help deciding what to do, just remember the recent destruction." Red moved towards the camera, and the tape stopped.

It didn't take long for the rulers to rush towards Bubblegum's castle. _*****_ Finn was pacing himself outside of the meeting room; he was too angry to listen. He remembered the first fight he had with that treacherous person; he only had himself to blame for that failure to finish him. The fact that Finn put up a better fight than, approximately, twenty villages never dawned on the fighter. He used a nearby wall as punching bag, trying to vent his emotions through physical force. Those paranoid townsfolk, especially the woman the Princess talked to, remained a symbol of failure within his mind.

After making various noises, the warrior king came out of the room, stealing the expression of anger from Finn's face, and engulfed him with his palm. It didn't help Finn that this hand was covered in sweat and dirt. Before Finn could react, he found himself tossed fifty meters to far end of the hallway. Over his own scream, he could hear the king yell, "Keep it down!" at the top of his lungs. Finn, judging from the non-lethal impact he felt at landing, could tell that the other was going rather easy with the throw. He went downstairs after getting up, figuring that there was nothing useful upstairs for the time being. Finn shoved a few people out the way as he made his way to training grounds for the guards. Walking through the hay-covered floor, he found a spare training dummy and started hacking away at it. Several guards observed Finn's actions, mostly because they rarely see him here with such rage.

Finn thought to himself as he laid the smack down on the dummy. Too many people were need, and, for many others, it was too late to help them with their problem. Finn slowed down his slashes. Something about that last thought was eerily familiar to him. His memory was fully formed when he thought of who threw him in the first place. The king that tossed him was the new ruler of the Marauders; his exact name slipped his mind, however. What he did remember, was his recent brawl against some of his men, as well as other friendly fights in years past. In fact, he also remembered fights with beings just as big as the king. He looked at his fist, the puniness of his fist just made him feel smaller. Finn, in a heightened state of anger from Red, put his sword down, and waited for the opportune moment for a rematch. After all, since he faced off against the recent destroyer, he believed he could compensate for his size in a fair fight. _*****_

Finn's patience was rewarded with sight of the lumbering giant. Whereas other royalty around consisted of the traditional upper-class attire and demeanor, the king was towered over them, having a hard time even fitting in the castle. Even for a marauder, he was an outlier, having bright red skin and having three times the muscle mass of the tribe he ruled over. Fortunately for Finn, when the marauder king looked over at Finn's raised fists and forward brow, he was more than happy to provide a rematch. Everyone else in the room, including Bubblegum, found this confrontation to be nothing but pointless.

The next thing Finn knew, he was hurtled across the room again. "The name's Krieger, by the way," said the king. He chuckled as he went out the door. "I'm the new king of the marauders for a reason." He then disappeared from Finn's sight.

Finn didn't pay attention to anything until he got back home. At least the treehouse has been untouched by this madness. It was already nightfall, with BMO and Jake just trailing off to slumber. The human wasn't really in the mood to sleep. Although he was unlucky back at the castle, a tiny bit of luck was still available at home. Being 8:30, Finn could still get a proper amount of sleep, so he snuck to the basement, where a plethora of seemingly useless junk was available. Finn proved this wrong almost instantly. With a bit of duct tape, old microwaves, stray metal, and baby shoes, makeshift weights were born. After testing them out with standard bicep curls, he proceeded to perform other weightlifting tactics, like bench-pressing and squats.

Finn's starting weight with the barbells was around 250 pounds. More than 30 reps were done, but Finn remained unsatisfied. He then put another fifty pounds on but remained unsatisfied. This happened three more times, giving Finn a total of 500 pounds to lift. Of course, he then learned the consequences of not having a spotting partner.

Jake heard a loud metal thud from below him. He faced Finn's bed, only to find that his adoptive brother wasn't there. The dog grabbed a lantern, and lit it with the stove top fire. The only thing that impeded him were the ladders leading downward and loose piece of glass from their recently broken mirror. Jake stepped on it, with the piece almost piercing his flesh. He quickly brushed it of his fur and threw it out the window, complaining to himself about the sudden shatter of house's bathroom mirror. He peeked through the little trap door leading to the basement, thinking that some criminals were there. If there were criminals, Jake thought he could use his current position to catch them by surprise. Jake then saw Finn, who had a visible bruise on his left cheek. Jake immediately rushed toward his brother.

"Finn!" he shouted. He stood beside Finn, enlarging his fist. "Where are they?" Jake punched various piles of junk, thinking thieves were in them.

"Easy, Jake!" Finn shouted back. "There's no one else here!"

Jake's fist shrunk back to normal. After a sigh a relief, Jake took a closer look at his brother's wound. * "What happened to you?" Jake asked. His right arm stretched all the way back to the kitchen and opened the freezer so he could retrieve an ice pack.

"Eh," Finn said, "the barbell was bit too heavy for me, so I tossed it away."

Jake looked at the clumsy ironing board Finn used to hold himself up. Clearly, part of the heavy object hit Finn as he tossed it. The dog looked back at the wound and its owner, Finn. The latter stood back up and tried to go back to lifting, but Jake stopped him in his tracks. "I think you should probably hit the hay." Jake pointed in the direction upstairs with his thumb. Finn ignored this statement and started doing pushups. Jake payed attention to Finn's expression; the sight of a forward brow and slightly clenched teeth was not the sight of happy brother. "Hey, Finn," Jake said, "is it me, or have you been acting a bit different lately." Finn stopped mid-pushup. The human's eyes darted to Jake upon hearing that sentence. * Instead of getting up normally, Finn used his hands to jump out of the pushup, allowing him to perform an aerial backflip with the added momentum. Once Finn's feet reached their peak height, they kicked a sandbag. Finn, now standing up properly, felt the released sand directly on his head. Finn remained stoic for a moment, waiting for the bag to fully empty its contents. "I need to spar," he said.

Jake didn't know what to make of this situation, so he figured that the best thing to do would be to comply with Finn's request. They went outside, under the light of the waning gibbous moon. They stood roughly fifteen feet from each other. Finn had built a sword made of cardboard and loose pieces of rags so he wouldn't inflict injuries. After a few test swings, Finn determined that it was stable and weighed the same as a normal sword. Unlike Finn, Jake only needed his fists thanks to his magical body.

"Alright," Finn said, "we fight until one of us says 'uncle.'" A cool breeze shook the fields around them. The leaves attached to their home flowed at the same rhythm as the grass. Jake was nearly too distracted by this sight to fight, but Finn's battle cry snapped the dog out of his little trance.

With only the tall grass standing between them, both fighters began to duke it out. Finn's eagerness had given him the opportunity to go on the offensive. Jake created a massive shield out his hand to stand up against Finn's attacks. While the sword didn't cut anything, Jake could still feel the impact of it through every forceful slash. Finn knew that his slashes were doing little aside from some bruise-worthy pain. Since the shield was too big for a direct attack, Finn knew that Jake would have to circumvent the shield in some way. *

BMO, awoken from the ruckus that the two were causing, peeped out the window. The first thing within BMO's sight were the actions that Finn successfully predicted. The human grabbed the stretched-out limb from overhead and jumped over the shield. Jake was hit but undeterred; he grabbed his brother's sword and threw it. The sword spun around in the air with though striking power, and its momentum allowed it to travel a far distance. Finn jumped out of its path, but Jake punched him right as he landed. Following this attack was a body slam performed by an enlarged Jake. Finn was unable to lift Jake off him, rendering the human unable to move away. Jake thought he won the fight, but he didn't count on Finn biting him. Jake yelped and reverted to normal size, allowing Finn to finally push him.

BMO watched as the two fighters continued to spar. The level of speed from the two were unlike what BMO had seen from them. The robot couldn't figure out why this would happen, but then a memory had returned. For the past few nights, BMO remembered seeing Finn head to the basements. BMO looked at the bookshelf in the living room, also remembering that Finn's been reading a bit more. Luckily for the robot, Finn had kept the books he'd been reading on the bottom shelf. BMO pulled out one of them, which was titled "How to Enhance Your Swordsmanship." Another was titled "A Marauder's guide to Mixed Martial Arts." BMO kept cycling through these books, finding that all of them share a similar them. After lamenting about how it should've known that Finn would read this, BMO simply put the books back where they once were and continued to watch the brawl unfold. *

"Finn!" Jake shouted as he deflected attacks. "You know, this is precisely what I was talking about earlier."

"What are you talking about?" Finn didn't relent on his attacks while speaking.

Jake growled under his breath. "You weren't even paying attention to what I was saying?" Jake jumped in the air and used another attack with a stretched fist. It simultaneously acted as both a tool for attacking and increasing distance.

Finn found himself surrounded by a large group of thin, makeshift limbs. "I've just had more important things to worry about!" He tried to punch the arms, but Jake had already begun a barrage of jabs.

"Like what!?" Jake's voice was loud enough to wake up the less active Shelby and Neptr. Seeing Finn do various flips to dodge got his blood boiling. He could only think of one way to end this fight quickly.

Finn's only response to the question was an earth-shaking battle cry, preventing anyone nearby from resting. With great haste, he charged at Jake.

"Not talking, huh?" Jake morphed his forearm and hand into a sword and slashed off the top quarter of Finn's cardboard blade. Moving certain bones from the unused arm gave the fleshy sword superior density over its opposition. *

The shock Finn experienced distracted him long enough to put Jake on the offensive. All Finn could do was parry Jake's slashes. With each successive hit, Finn lost some his grip on the weapon. Jake then smacked the sword out of Finn's hand, caught it, and crushed it. Finn, defenseless, was knocked into the side of treehouse by Jake. Finn growled as he crawled away from the wall. He tried to move, but a torrent of sharp pain flooded his body. Finn could only take a few more steps before collapsing.

"Are you going to say it now?" Jake asked. He walked over to Finn, whose face was as red as a tomato.

"I REFUSE!" Finn's voice cracked. He stood up and tried to punch Jake one last time.

Jake dodged the attack with minimal effort, and Finn stumbled into the grass. Seeing his brother helpless, he spoke up. "Uncle," he said.

A long silence filled the area. Jake picked up his squirming brother, bridal style, and went back into their bedroom. Jake laid his brother flat on the bed and inspected for injuries. Finn had ceased all willful movement. Seeing that Finn had closed his eyes, Jake hopped into his own bed, thinking that his brother fallen asleep from exhaustion. Jake rested his eyes for a good ten minutes. Just as soon as he was about to enter a dream, he heard Finn laugh. Jake's head darted up as if he was never sleepy to begin with.

"It happened in reverse," Finn said in the middle of laughing. "It's the one who is weak that's supposed to say, 'Uncle.'" Finn looked at Jake, who was visibly perplexed at the human's mannerisms.

"Huh?" was all Jake could say.

"I thought you knew the rules to this." * Finn's face lit up, * and his laughter grew louder.

Jake eventually drowned out this nonsensical laughter and fall asleep.

Finn had a perfect view of the sunrise. The sand below him was surprisingly comfy. The human sat there, watching the sunlight glisten on the water. The rhythmic waves were all that he could hear. Although he wasn't interested in touching the water, he did admire how calming it could be. With the ocean, he had nothing crowding his vision, except for air and water. Finn looked at his outfit, liking the fact that some of nature's most peaceful sights had the same color scheme as his clothes. Dark blue was on the bottom, and a sky blue was up top. Finn, following the logic of the metaphor, considered his hat to be cloud. * He kicked the sand for a while, and paid no attention to the forest behind him.

Finn looked to his right and saw the Candy Kingdom. Despite it being a few miles away, the princess's palace stood tall over the nearby trees. It was rare that he could see the palace coated with the morning light. For once, it had a nice, greenish-blue tint to it. Having served the princess for over seven years, Finn grew familiar with all the other ways the palace could be seen.

Finn chuckled at memory. The night sky was looming over the kingdom every time an invasion hit. Twice, the kingdom had to deal with undead. To make a long story short, the kingdom survived, despite almost falling to infection. Another time, the invaders looked like they were human. Of course, when Finn had saw what was under their headgear, he was proven otherwise. The only exception was this one girl, Susan. Finn had never figured out if she was human, mainly due to the her never taking of hear hat. Finn put his hand inside his hat, giving him a chance to rub his plain, blonde hair. He was content that he was human. However, such a thing reminded him that he could very well be the last of his kind.

Finn could tell that negative memories were starting to cloud his mind, so he turned to his left, seeing a sight that wasn't in the realm of memory. While it was walking distance, the sight remained very faint. Finn felt blessed by the lack of distraction around him. Otherwise, the sight would have been obscured by distractions, rendering it undiscoverable. At first glance, it looked like a mere pile of rocks under a short cliff. But then, his expectations of this discovery were surpassed when he was only a few steps away. The morning light illuminated the interior of the cave.

Finn had been to this beach for years, yet he had never seen this area before. He smiled upon this discovery and went inside. Seeing unfamiliar objects littered throughout the cave simply increased his anticipation. Since the cave was small, he could check out all the objects in the area sooner. The first thing he inspected was rusty suit of armor. After his knuckles got sore from punching it a few times, Finn knew that it still had a few good years left in it. Seeing that many of the other items were just as rusted and dusty, he figured that nobody was around to object him for trying it on. While it felt heavy, the chest plate didn't do much to slow Finn down. He was eager to see more, but then he heard a voice.

"Finn!" Jake shouted. Being outside of the cave, he couldn't find Finn. Finn, much to his annoyance, stepped out of the cave and waved his hands to get his brother's attention. * Jake walked up to his brother. "There you are," Jake said. "I should've figured you'd sneak out like this, given how weird you've been acting." The new armor and previously unseen cave caught Jake's attention. "Is this what's making you act weird?" Jake walked into the cave.

"Actually, no." Finn followed his brother. "I just found it."

Jake snooped around, finding various rusted weapons and armor. He turned around, showing himself adorned with a flail and a helmet. Seeing that no one lived here and various duplicates of the armor existed, Finn realized it was safe to test run the discovered treasure.

"Hey, Jake," said Finn. The new smile on the Finn's face did not go unnoticed. Because of that, Jake listened with open ears. "I want to see what happens when you try to punch this armor."

The duo, silently agreeing to test the armor, went out of the cave. They stood roughly fifteen feet from each other. While the sentiment of challenge was present, none of the tension from last night was present. There smiles were half-joyful and half-cocky. Jake flung his enlarged fist across the beach. Finn stood his ground, showing no fear, and was hit by the fierce impact of the punch. As usual, he was sent flying, but not as far.

"Doesn't look like the armor helps much," Finn said, not really caring that it failed. But after Finn got up, his jaw dropped slightly.

Jake was clenching his teeth, and his fist was throbbing. Thankfully, there was no blood. "Oh glob," he said. His words were tainted with meekness. The hand retracted back to its owner and was embraced by the other hand. "That armor got me good," he said. "Uncle." He did several motions with hands to make sure his joints were still functional. "I actually mean it this time." He fell to the sand, laughing as if he was in a stupor.

At that point, the brothers forgot that they were simply testing the armor, leaving them to consider this a continuation of last night's fight. Finn felt a little guilty for using some random armor instead of his own strength, but a win was still a win. Finn laid down next to Jake, and they stared at the clouds.

"Jake."

"Yeah, buddy."

"Do you think I'm falling behind?"

"Huh?" Jake was just as puzzled as he was last night.

Finn tapped the sand around him and his face returned to the furious expression of last night. "Haven't you noticed it by now? Lately, I've been effortlessly tossed around by other fighters. Did you hear what happened yesterday? I tried fighting the marauder king."

"I'm guessing that didn't go well."

Finn scoffed. "Of course, it didn't."

"Why do care about your strength now? Before you fought that one wierdo a week back, you didn't care."

"By 'wierdo', you mean Red, right?" Finn's increase in anger was evident by his growl. "Those innocent people are dead because I wasn't able to finish him when I had the chance."

Jake stood up. "Come on, Finn. Cheer up, I know things look terrible now, but we've faced worse." Jake looked at the forest, and the pupils in his eyes shrunk with fear.

"Really?" Finn's doubt in Jake was apparent. "Then what are looking at?"

Finn turned around, and saw another of Red's smoke clouds. He considered it a blessing that it wasn't from the kingdom, but that did little to prevent his feeling of urgency. Finn bolted in the direction of the smoke, only for Jake to stop him.

"Let me go!" Finn squirmed in Jake's grasp.

"Look at how far that cloud is. We'll never make it in time."

Finn, forced to remain still, took a better look at his target. Jake was right, since the destroyed town was at least double the distance of the princess's castle. Feeling defeated, Finn released the tension present in his body. Finn sat down once more. Despite not having fought, he felt as though he was defeated again. Jake pat him on the back. The gesture wasn't much, but it did cushion the emotional blow. Before they knew it, Jake was sparring with Finn again. This time, rather than trying to prove one's strength, they sought to improve.


	7. Chapter 7

The End Chapter 7 Rough Draft

Days Until Genocide: 331

"I thought you told me that you already had a plan for this," said Skully.

Red was in the middle of a croquet match with BMO. "I only said that to get you to send the tape." A undershot his ball, letting BMO get ahead. "You forgot what our respective jobs are." *

Skully sighed and shook his head. "Well, do you really think that they'll just let us go in?"

"Nope." Red hit a ball through one of the grounded hoops. "It can't be that hard to put out a fire. Just figure it out."

Skully sat down on a nearby hill and tried to sort everything out in his head.

"What are you two talking about?" BMO asked.

BMO didn't see, but Red's eyes jumped fully opened. To hide this surprised expression, he turned away as if he was trying to calculate his next shot. "Nothing much, just trying get something back from a few miscreants."

BMO's ball hit the goal, ending the game. Red looked at the robot as it briefly cheered for its small victory. Given how small and cute Red perceived BMO, he couldn't help but give a calm little smile. "Good job," he said while lightly patting its head. "With skills like that, you'll be a professional one day." The flattery was the icing on the cake for BMO.

The two then started picking up the game pieces. Skully was still sitting there, with his strange gaze contrasting the luscious fields and late-morning sun.

"Does Skully always look that creepy?" BMO whispered.

"In way, yes. But I'm used to it." Red set his share of the objects in the entrance room. That's when he saw a gold ring within a goblet. "I've been looking this," he said and put it in his pocket. BMO forgot that Red was mentioning the loose ring it found a few nights ago. If Red didn't steal most of the gold, BMO saw no reason to intervene. The spot where he picked up the ring was a vital spot in him noticing another object. From where the human was standing, he saw a silver colored hit, decorated with a sapphire and engravings. He picked up the sword.

Surely enough, the engravings said, "Human."

"Excuse me," Red said, "but where did you get this sword?"

"Oh no!" BMO dropped its share of game pieces. "Finn forgot his new sword!"

Red swallowed his internal emotions, putting up a front of concern. After clearing his throat, he said, "Well, where can I find this…Finn." The way he spoke signaled that he was unfamiliar with the name. However, the opposite was true.

"I'm not sure. Once they arrive the castle, they immediately go somewhere else for many hours."

Red sighed. "Then that means I can't trace him. He can survive without it, right?"

To that question, BMO nodded. They picked up the rest of the objects and set them in their proper place. After that, they went upstairs. Content, unexerted, and confident in the other human's abilities, the two went upstairs to play video games. Meanwhile, Skully was still sitting on the hill, still trying to figure out what to do. He paced back and forth for a frustratingly long half hour. Then, Skully saw a shadow hover above him.

"Hey, wierdo," The voice above him said. "Do you know where Finn or Bubblegum went? I tried looking in both of their places, but it's like they disappeared."

Skully looked above him, and saw an old, blue man. His garb consisted of a dark blue robe and a golden crown. "I don't know, fool," said the aggravated Skully. "Anyways, I'm too busy to help you right now." In an act of rage, the old man showed his razor-sharp teeth and conjured sparks from his palms. Next thing Skully knew, he was frozen in a block of ice, with only the front of his mask uncovered.

"On second thought," Skully said, "I'll help you if you can return the favor."

"I'm listening," he said. His anger immediately dissipated.

Skully, knowing that him and Red never delivered a tape to an ice based kingdom, spoke as if he was merely an ally of Bubblegum. "Finn and the princess are out trying to find the people causing the havoc around Ooo. I'm pretty sure most royalty from the local kingdoms know their identities by now."

"All royalty? Then why haven't any told me about this?" The old man kicked a nearby rock. "First, I wasn't invited to the little royal party thing. Now this?"

Skully remembered that "party" the old man was referring to and knew that such a label was belittling of serious political turmoil. "My guess is that you're an ice king?"

"I'm _the_ ice king!" squealed the old man in the childish manner.

"Well, your majesty, I've been trying to face whoever these two fools are. Of course, I can't do that without something to put their flames out." Skully tried squirming out of the ice block.

"Don't worry." The ice king created an ice pick and chopped away at the block. "I know a place where you get plenty of spells." He muttered this next sentence. "This'll show'em that I can help too." Shortly after, Skully was freed, and Red was informed of the news.


	8. Chapter 8

The End Chapter 8 Rough Draft

Days Until Genocide: 328

Armed soldiers from various nations surrounded the Fire Kingdom's borders. However, being their home kingdom, volcanic humanoids made up most of the forces. Each of the Fire Kingdom's troops were varying in combination of lava, rock, or pure flame. The queen, with the help of being pure flame, towered a hundred stories over the kingdom, keeping a long-distance watch. Everyone felt as though the enemy was simply a few seconds away from attacking. Maybe they were just mere centimeters out of the queen's sight?

Regardless of the enemy's position relative to theirs, that wouldn't solve the problem that plagued them. What was going to proceed was the first real battle against this unknown enemy. Finn was the only one who had fought Red and survived. Meanwhile, other survivors had no information to help future defenses. Finn and Jake guarded the heart of the queen's palace. Being deep into the kingdom, they had to wear an enchanted barrier to protect them from the heat. Since it colored them both dark blue, it would be easy to find each other in case if they got lost in rubble. Of course, this made them stick out like a sore thumb amongst the lava sea below and reddish-brown rock surrounding them.

Finn looked behind him, seeing the door that protected the base of the queen. "So, all we have to do is just guard this area?"

"Yup," Jake said.

Finn waited. For him and the troops, the wait was nerve-wracking. Red didn't specify what time he would come, so they had to ensemble there the night before, just to be safe. Everyone was cycling through sleeping and patrol to make sure that not all troops had sleep deprivation before the battle. Some got bored, and started to goof off. Of course, this was meet with some harsh words from the commanders. *

Hours continued to pass. Finn could hardly see it, but the autumn sun was on the verge of setting. Therefore, he believed that it was around five or six in the afternoon. To keep themselves from growing stiff, the duo occasionally did stretches. At one point, they even tried to pass the time with some "I Spy." Some of the fellow soldiers also gave some off-handed comments about their opponent, saying that Red was probably attacking other places. While Finn and Jake thought that there was some ounce of truth to that statement, they silently disagreed with another soldier who said this preparation was a waste of time.

The sun was now sitting on the horizon, with only a lone bird keeping it company. A goblin soldier who was stationed on the front lines admired the grace of the bird. Although the sun made it appear like a silhouette, he took a liking to the animal's gentle movements as it sat down by the nest it was building. The border was where the hard, lifeless rock meet with clean, nutritious soil of the grasslands; the only other trees where at least a half mile away. The fact that the tree it nested on was so full of life reminded the goblin what he was fighting for. He hoped the tree would be sparred of the chaos. In his mind, it wasn't time for such a young parent to lose their home.

Another silhouette walked up from the horizon. At the sight of this, the goblin almost dropped his lance out of fear. However, remembering his duty, he stopped with the anxious shaking and spoke up.

"Halt!" His voice cracked. "State your business!" After saying that, the shadow didn't respond. This lack of response only made the goblin shake again.

"I'll take care of this," said a soldier from the fire kingdom. "You there, are you friend or foe?" His words resonated more confidence than that of the goblin's. As a reward for his bravery, the fire elemental was given two 12 by 4-inch ice shards. One pierced his skull, while the other smashed his heart.

The goblin's weapon fell to the ground almost as fast as the corpse beside him. The amateur soldier, too panicked to follow proper procedure, ran away. He was frozen on the spot. The other soldiers zoned in to fight this hostile. The ones who didn't immediately participate in this retaliation saw what toward behind him. A storm of large needles, each roughly the size of an arrow, were flying through the sky. The volley was roughly twenty miles in length. The soldier's hearts raced when they realized they were the targets.

The closest commander shouted at the top of his lungs. "EVERYONE, SHIELDS UP!"

Faint whiffs could be heard in the air as the threat approached. Most of the soldiers did exactly what the commander ordered. Loud thuds and clanging metal were the only sounds in the area. With the soldiers distracted by the volley, the shadow launched several miniature blizzards upon crowds of soldiers. * Inches felt like miles to each of the soldiers; nobody could move more than a few inches without getting hit. It wasn't long before the cries of soldiers overran the area. * Half the soldiers on the front lines fell to the ground when the barrage had ended. *

The attacker trudged forward. The fading presence of the sun revealed a fine image of him. He was covered from head-to-toe in bulky armor, save for a sight opening for the helmet. The armor was split into two layers. One was heavy knight armor, tinted blue by flame resistant spell. Atop that, there was a three-inch layer of unmalting ice. Within the ice, various charms and jars, all having some sort of ice-related emblem on it. The only exception was a lone fire extinguisher. Just to be safe, he made sure a second layer of that blue spell was applied to him. Thus, his color had made him stand out amongst the red, green, and brown fields around him. The only thing looking natural was Red's obscured face behind the armor, but anyone who was close to him was assaulted.

Hundreds of soldiers swarmed him, which Red responded with wide blasts of ice shards. Hurtling towards was a storm of fire casted from the queen. However, after being coated with by the scorching element, only a bit of steam came from his armor. No significant damage had been made. Bodies were piling up as Red did whatever means possible to kill. Then suddenly, a loud explosion of ice occurred near home, increasing his body count. Deep within the underground bunkers, hiding the civilians, the ground was shaking from the impact. Families embraced each other, praying for the safety of the defending forces.

Finn and Jake could clearly hear the louder parts of the carnage taking place. * Unfortunately, being too deep underground, it would take too much time to even attempt an intervention. Tremors followed the heaviest attacks Red unleashed. With each one, Finn's felt his skin crawl. After several tremors, there was only one with the accompaniment of falling pebbles, some of which landed on his head. At first, Finn thought that the room's foundation was flimsy. But then, the pebbles kept falling. He stepped back to see the source of the nuisance.

There was only one point in the ceiling being affected. At first, nothing had change. Finn was just about to lower his guard when a large crack formed. Skully fell to the floor, with a large purple spike in his hand. Upon landing, he brushed the charcoal off his mask. Skully looked behind him, only half-surprised to see Finn. He let out a slight chuckle.

"I didn't expect you here," Skully said. "Well, I'm sure you know what I'm here for." He shrugged. "Unfortunately for me, Red doesn't want you injured, and I'm sure you won't want the same. If you could just calmly step aside, things don't have to get ugly."

Finn swung his blade at him, only for him to block it with the spike.

"Is this the part where we fight? I told you, I have important matters to attend to." Skully ran to the central pillar of the room, with the spike buzzing from its gyration.

Jake grabbed him and flung him off the bridge. They would've spoke too soon if they considered him dead. Skully was dangling from a rope made of the strange spikes.

Skully's eyes locked onto Jake. "While I won't kill a human, I have no qualms in putting a dog down." He unleashed a barrage at Jake.

* Taking advantage of the brief distraction, Skully rocked back and forth on the rope, and lunged towards the lower wall of the pillar, just a few feet from sea of lava below. With his free hand, Skully drilled toward his objective. It wasn't long before his drill was knocked away via arrow. He looked in the direction of the arrow's source and growled at the guilty guards. Out in the open and lacking mobility, Skully was a sitting duck for the next storm of arrows. With one shot, he was sent into the lava.

Skully emerged from the lava, kicking and screaming from the scorching heat. However, the damage dealt to him was equivalent to being dipped in boiling water. While still deadly, it didn't provide the instant annihilation the guards hoped for. Skully, despite being in a state of panic, managed to form a shoddy raft out of his spikes. After climbing to safety, he began to hyperventilate. The guards weren't sure if he was still able to fight. Since being able to capture this menace alive would be more useful than simply killing him, they didn't want to take another chance shooting.

It took Skully a second to regain his wits. With his breaths and heart rate slowed down to normal levels he stood back up. "You gentlemen must really want your comrades to see the afterlife. Let me through, and we'll leave sooner!"

Finn responded by shooting him with a bow.


End file.
